MOTION IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH: A PERSPECTIVE FROM

Transcription

MOTION IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH:
A PERSPECTIVE FROM COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS,
TYPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
Paula Cifuentes Férez
Ph. D. Thesis
Supervisor: Dr. Javier Valenzuela Manzanares
Departamento de Filología Inglesa
Facultad de Letras
Universidad de Murcia
2008
To my family
Abstract
Motion is central to human experience; it is pervasive in our daily lives and also in
our communicative needs. However, it is a well established fact that languages differ
in their linguistic expression of motion. Talmy’s (1985, 2000) work distinguishes
two different types of languages according to the way the different elements of a
motion event are mapped onto linguistic elements: satellite-framed and verb-framed
languages. English and Spanish are often taken as examples of this typological
difference. English, as a satellite-framed language, expresses the core component of
motion, i.e., the Path or trajectory of motion, in satellites (e.g., up, down) or in
prepositional phrases (e.g., into/out of the house), leaving the verb slot free to encode
Manner-of-motion. Spanish, as a verb-framed language, typically expresses Path in
the main verb while relegating the expression of Manner to adjuncts (e.g.,
entrar/salir corriendo lit. ‘enter/exit running’).
Talmy’s seminal work has engendered a great deal of research and debate in
the literature on motion event descriptions over the last two decades. Despite the vast
amount of research on the linguistic expression of motion events, the fact that motion
verb roots might encode information apart from Path and Manner is often
overlooked, as are minor lexicalisation patterns that might occur. Furthermore,
scholars, more often than not, have neglected the study of path verbs in favour of the
study of manner verbs, as the differing expression of Manner has so far been the
most interesting diverging point between satellite- and verb-framed languages.
Finally, hardly any work has been devoted to an in-depth analysis of the semantics of
motion verb lexicons in both verb- and satellite-framed languages beyond the
comparison of the motion verbs found in novels or elicited orally in the two types of
language.
The present thesis aims at bridging the gap in the existing literature by
addressing the semantics of English and Spanish motion verbs. In the first part of this
dissertation, a systematic and detailed account of the semantics of English and
Spanish motion verb lexicons from a contrastive point of view is provided. The
patterns of general conflations are explored, as well as more subtle path notions and
fine-grained manner information which can be conveyed by motion verbs in these
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two languages. Comparison between English and Spanish leads to the identification
of some similarities: (a) conflation of Motion plus one additional semantic
component, either Manner or Path, is the most characteristic lexicalisation pattern of
both motion verb lexicons; (b) both languages have path verbs which express, at
minimum, 13 different types of Path; among these, the most frequently lexicalised
types of Path are ‘Away from G’, ‘Up/Onto G – Upwards’, ‘To/towards G’ and
‘Down from/to G – Downwards’, whereas the least frequent is ‘Out of G’; and (c)
both languages possess many more walking verbs than running and jumping verbs.
These tendencies suggest that there are important similarities in how English and
Spanish, and possibly other verb- and satellite-framed languages, lexicalise the
domain of motion in their verb roots. In addition, some crosslinguistic differences are
noted: (a) English manner-of-motion verbs outnumber those of Spanish and tend to
exploit some manner parameters much more often than Spanish manner verbs (e.g.,
manner information about the mental and physical state of the Figure and details
about the way the Figure moves its legs while walking, motion using vehicles,
motion while dancing); and (b) the Spanish path verb lexicon is larger in size than
the English one, although both languages are able to express similar types of Paths.
The second part of this thesis aims to investigate an important subdomain of
motion, that of human locomotion, using experimental methods. Three studies are
reported: a definition and feature listing task, a free verb listing task, and a verbcategorization rating task. These studies offer interesting insights into how English
and Spanish organise their motion verb lexicons and into the complex semantics of
human locomotion verbs. In addition, the findings provide empirical support for
some of the observations from the linguistic analysis undertaken in the first part of
this thesis, and they suggest that, rather than instantiating a single motor pattern,
some motion verbs might better be considered as a combination of motor patterns.
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Acknowledgements
The completion of this thesis has been possible thanks to the support of many people;
people who set off upon this long journey with me and people whom I encountered
along the path.
First of all, I must thank my supervisor, Javier Valenzuela Manzanares, for
his support and advice through the years; his guidance, kindness and friendship not
only helped me to achieve the completion of the present work but also prepared me
for the future.
I am also grateful to the Cognitive Linguistics group at the University of
Murcia for their encouragement and friendship, especially to Antonio Barcelona for
counting on me as a research assistant during my last year as an undergraduate and
for having me for four years as a graduate student. I owe to him my scholarly
inspiration.
Additionally, I thank my friends and research fellows for their constant moral
support; I must express my gratitude to my friends from Pliego for not asking too
often ‘When are you finishing your PhD?’ and to my research fellows, especially to
Pilar Mompeán, for encouraging me with ‘You are on track! Almost there!’
I am also grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science for their
financial support (BES-2004-4450), especially during the three research stays which
I spent at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, USA), at the Max Planck Institute
for Psycholinguistics (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) and at the University of Lousiana
at Lafayette (Lafayette, LA, USA). A big thank you to Dedre Gentner, Anetta
Kopecka, Asifa Majid and Michele Feist for supervising me during these very
productive research stays. I cannot show enough my gratitude for their sharing their
time, for their support and for their stimulating comments. In particular, I am grateful
to Anetta Kopecka and Asifa Majid for their guidance through all the steps of my
first experimental study; without their help and advice I would not have been able to
keep on track. Moreover, I would like to thank the Language and Cognition Lab at
the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and especially Michele Feist, for their
feedback on my experimental studies, and for putting up with me so patiently during
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my stay as well as for giving me the so needed support for going through the final
stages of this dissertation. All of you are in every bit of this dissertation.
I would also like to thank the committee for reading the results of my efforts
along this journey, and Michele Feist for proofreading this volume.
A tremendous thank you to all the participants who kindly volunteered to take
part in my studies, to Georgina Oliver and Carmen Comeaux for running the English
version of my studies, and to the Department of English Philology at the University
of Murcia, particularly Raquel Criado, Lourdes Cerezo, María Dueñas, Ana Rojo,
and Cristina Soriano, for letting me run the Spanish versions in their classes.
Finally, but most importantly, I thank my family dearly for their support, love
and unshakeable trust during all this time. My husband, Raimundo Martínez Manuel,
provided me with the necessary faith, strength and courage to go through all the
stages of this journey; he was my best fellow traveller along the uphills, downhills
and twisted paths.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………………….i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………………v
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES………………………………………………………ix
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………1
1.1. The problem ........................................................................................................ 2
1.2. Aims and methodology ....................................................................................... 3
1.3. Outline of the thesis ............................................................................................ 5
CHAPTER 2. COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS AND THE THEORY OF LEXICALISATION
PATTERNS…………………………………………………………………………….9
2.1. An Overview of Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Semantics ................. 11
2.1.1. Introduction.......................................................................................... 11
2.1.2. Cognitive Linguistics ........................................................................... 11
2.1.3. Cognitive Semantics ............................................................................ 13
2.1.3.1. Main tenets and lines of research...................................................... 13
2.1.3.2. Conceptual Semantics....................................................................... 18
2.2. Talmy’s theory of lexicalisation patterns........................................................ 23
2.2.1. Introduction.......................................................................................... 23
2.2.2. The Motion Event ................................................................................ 25
2.2.3. The three-way typology: the verb root................................................. 29
2.2.3.1. Lexicalisation pattern: Motion + Co-event ....................................... 30
2.2.3.2. Lexicalisation pattern: Motion + Path............................................... 31
2.2.3.3. Lexicalisation pattern: Motion + Figure ........................................... 32
2.2.3.4. Other minor patterns ......................................................................... 34
2.2.3.5. Split and parallel systems of conflation ............................................ 36
2.2.4. The two-way typology: Path of motion ............................................... 37
2.2.5. Typological shifts................................................................................. 39
2.3. Typology revisited............................................................................................. 41
2.3.1. Introduction.......................................................................................... 41
2.3.1. Equipollently-framed languages .......................................................... 42
2.3.3. Cline of Manner salience ..................................................................... 43
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2.3.4. Cline of Path salience........................................................................... 46
2.4. The Linguistic-Relativity Hypothesis.............................................................. 47
2.4.1. Introduction.......................................................................................... 47
2.4.2. Sapir and Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis ........................... 49
2.4.3. Slobin’s Thinking for Speaking ........................................................... 53
CHAPTER 3. BEYOND LINGUISTIC TYPOLOGIES: CROSSLINGUISTIC STUDIES ON
MOTION EVENTS……………………………………………………………………56
3.1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 57
3.2. Thinking-for-speaking research ...................................................................... 58
3.2.1. Introduction.......................................................................................... 58
3.2.2. Narrative style...................................................................................... 59
3.2.3. Translation ........................................................................................... 65
3.2.4. Sign languages and co-speech gestures ............................................... 69
3.2.4.1. Sign languages .................................................................................. 70
3.2.4.2. Co-speech gestures............................................................................ 72
3.2.5. First language acquisition .................................................................... 74
3.2.6. Language processing............................................................................ 76
3.2.7. Extensions to the domain of vision...................................................... 79
3.3. Linguistic relativity research ........................................................................... 82
3.3.1. Introduction.......................................................................................... 82
3.3.2. Positive evidence ................................................................................. 83
3.3.2. Conflicting evidence ............................................................................ 86
3.3.3. The role of telicity, type of Manner and type of Figure....................... 87
3.5. Summary............................................................................................................ 89
CHAPTER 4. CLASSIFICATIONS AND ANALYSES OF MOTION VERBS………………93
4.1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 94
4.2. The Syntax-Semantics interface ...................................................................... 95
4.2.1. Introduction.......................................................................................... 95
4.2.2. Motion verb classes.............................................................................. 96
4.3. The Functional-Lexematic model.................................................................. 102
4.3.1. Introduction........................................................................................ 102
4.3.2. Lexical subdomains of motion........................................................... 103
4.4. Online verb databases..................................................................................... 107
4.4.1. Introduction........................................................................................ 107
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4.4.2. Adesse ................................................................................................ 107
4.4.3. FrameNet and Spanish FrameNet ...................................................... 108
4.4.4. WordNet and MultiWordNet ............................................................. 111
4.4.5. VerbNet.............................................................................................. 112
4.5. The semantics of motion verbs....................................................................... 113
4.5.1. Introduction........................................................................................ 113
4.5.2. Manner verbs ..................................................................................... 113
4.5.3. Path verbs........................................................................................... 122
4.6. Summary.......................................................................................................... 126
CHAPTER 5. THE SEMANTICS OF THE ENGLISH AND THE SPANISH
MOTION VERB LEXICONS………......……………………………………………..129
5.1. Introduction..................................................................................................... 130
5.2. Aims and methodology ................................................................................... 131
5.2.1. Aims................................................................................................... 131
5.2.2. Corpus of motion verbs...................................................................... 134
5.2.3. Methodology ...................................................................................... 137
5.2.4. Some problems and limitations.......................................................... 145
5.3. General distribution: verb conflations.......................................................... 146
5.3.1. English verbs...................................................................................... 147
5.3.2. Spanish verbs ..................................................................................... 153
5.3.3. Discussion and Conclusions .............................................................. 160
5.4. Path verbs ........................................................................................................ 163
5.4.1. English path verbs.............................................................................. 165
5.4.2. Spanish path verbs ............................................................................. 170
5.5. Manner verbs .................................................................................................. 182
5.5.1. English manner verbs......................................................................... 183
5.5.2. Spanish manner verbs ........................................................................ 197
5.6. Conclusions...................................................................................................... 218
CHAPTER 6. AN EMPIRICAL LOOK AT HUMAN LOCOMOTION VERBS…………...224
6.1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………..225
6.2. The meaning of move, walk, run and jump.................................................. 226
6.2.1. Introduction........................................................................................ 226
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6.2.2. Method ............................................................................................... 227
6.2.3. Results................................................................................................ 228
6.2.4. Discussion and conclusions ............................................................... 232
6.3. Walking, running and jumping Verbs .......................................................... 234
6.3.1. Introduction........................................................................................ 234
6.3.2. Method ............................................................................................... 235
6.3.3. Results................................................................................................ 236
6.4. Categorisation of human locomotion verbs.................................................. 251
6.4.1. Introduction........................................................................................ 251
6.4.2. Method ............................................................................................... 253
6.4.3. Results................................................................................................ 254
6.5. Conclusions...................................................................................................... 264
CHAPTER 7. CONCLUSIONS………………………………………………………..266
7.1. Summary of the main points.......................................................................... 267
7.2. Possible directions for future research ......................................................... 269
7.3. Applications ..................................................................................................... 271
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………….272
APPENDIX 1………………………………………………………………………...295
APPENDIX 2………………………………………………………………………...392
APPENDIX 3………………………………………………………………………...432
APPENDIX 4………………………………………………………………………...438
APPENDIX 5………………………………………………………………………...440
RESUMEN...………………………………………………………………………...450
Introducción ........................................................................................................... 450
Objetivos, corpus y metodología........................................................................... 455
Resultados............................................................................................................... 461
Conclusiones finales ............................................................................................... 468
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List of Figures
Figure 2.1. The bifurcation of conceptual structure as it is reflected in language………………….....20
Figure 6.1. Listed manner verbs per category and language...............................................................247
Figure 6.2. Number of manner verb types per category and language ...............................................247
Figure 6.3. Superordinate verb effect in English and Spanish ............................................................256
Figure 6.4. Interaction between language and question type ..............................................................256
Figure 6.5. English: effects of the question type and of superordinate verb .......................................257
Figure 6.6. Spanish: effects of the question type and of superordinate verb.......................................258
List of Tables
Table 5.1. Semantic distribution of English motion verbs..................................................................148
Table 5.2. Semantic distribution of Spanish motion verbs .................................................................154
Table 5.3. English and Spanish verbs conflating Ground ...................................................................162
Table 5.4. Distribution of English path verbs .....................................................................................165
Table 5.5. Distribution of Spanish path verbs.....................................................................................170
Table 5.6. Distribution of English and Spanish path verbs.................................................................177
Table 5.7. Distribution of English manner verbs (Self-contained Motion).........................................184
Table 5.8. Distribution of English manner verbs (Translational Motion)...........................................187
Table 5.9. Distribution of Spanish manner verbs (Self-contained Motion) ........................................197
Table 5.10. Distribution of Spanish manner verbs (Translational Motion) ........................................201
Table 5.11. Distribution of English and Spanish manner verbs (Self-contained Motion) ..................208
Table 5.12. Distribution of English and Spanish manner verbs (Translational Motion).....................209
Table 5.13. Fine-grained manner categories for Walking verbs in English and Spanish……………213
Table 6.1. Semantic information included in definitions of move / moverse ......................................228
Table 6.2. Semantic information included in definitions of walk / andar...........................................229
Table 6.3. Semantic information included in definitions for run / correr...........................................230
Table 6.4. Semantic information included in definitions for jump / saltar .........................................231
Table 6.5. General distribution of listed items per verb category in English and in Spanish..............241
Table 6.6. Motion verbs, adverbials and satellites listed as first item (per category and language) ...243
Table 6.7. Categorisation of English human locomotion verbs ..........................................................259
Table 6.8. Categorisation of Spanish human locomotion verbs..........................................................260
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. The problem
1.2. Aims and methodology
1.3. Outline of the thesis
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. The problem
Motion is central to human experience; it is pervasive in our daily lives and also in
our communicative needs. It seems to be a universal concept present in all the
languages of the world. However, it is a well established fact that languages differ in
their linguistic expression of motion. Talmy’s (1985, 2000a, 2000b) work
distinguishes two different types of languages, i.e., satellite-framed and verb-framed
languages, according to the way the different elements of a motion scene are mapped
onto linguistic elements. English and Spanish are often taken as examples of this
typology. English, as a satellite-framed language, expresses the core component of
motion, i.e., Path or the trajectory of motion, in satellites (e.g., up, down) or in
prepositional phrases (e.g., into/out of the house), leaving the verb slot free to encode
Manner-of-motion. Spanish, as a verb-framed language, typically expresses Path in
the main verb while relegating the expression of Manner to adjunts (e.g., entrar/salir
corriendo lit. ‘enter/exit running’). However, it should be borne in mind that
typologies reflect tendencies rather than absolute differences among languages
(Berman & Slobin, 1994); thus, both languages have path-conflating and mannerconflating verbs in addition to other verbs which encode other semantic information
pertaining to the motion event, as noted by Talmy and others.
Talmy’s typological work has inspired a great deal of research on motion
event descriptions over the last two decades. Such research has taken for granted that
the main difference between satellite-framed and verb-framed languages resides in
their differential encoding of Manner of motion; Manner is readily encoded in verbs
in satellite-framed languages whereas it is optional in verb-framed languages. As a
consequence, much less research attention has been given to the Path component,
which, as core of the motion event, is encoded either in the verb or in satellites.
Moreover, research has frequently overlooked the other possible semantic
conflations (e.g., Ground, Figure) that might exist in the motion verb lexicons of
satellite- and verb-framed languages, thus impoverishing their crosslinguistic
analyses.
Regarding manner verbs, Slobin (1997: 459) has pointed out that languages
seem to have a ‘two-tiered’ lexicon of manner-of-motion verbs: (1) a general one, or
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superordinate level, represented by everyday verbs such as walk, run, jump, fly, etc.;
and (2) a more specific and expressive level consisting of different ways of walking,
such as stroll, wander, or shuffle; different ways of running such as sprint or jog, etc.
Research based on elicited narratives and novels has shown that English possesses a
very extensive and elaborated second level whereas Spanish’s manner verb lexicon is
not as rich and mainly consists of general manner-of-motion verbs. In relation to path
verbs, Özçalişkan (2004: 85) has claimed that path verb lexicons of both satelliteand verb-framed languages ‘form a closed lexical category that does not provide
many options for elaboration’ and thus, both typological groups may possess an
approximately similar number of path verbs. However, her claims have not been
fully addressed by crosslinguistic research yet.
As a final point, despite the vast amount of research on the linguistic
expression of motion events in English and in Spanish, and of the claims about the
semantics of their manner verbs, hardly any research has been devoted to an in-depth
analysis of their motion verb lexicons, and a comparative study is, to our knowledge,
nonexistent. This dissertation aims at filling the gap in the existing literature by
providing a systematic and detailed account of the semantics of both English and
Spanish motion verb lexicons. A better understanding of the semantics of motion
verbs in these languages is of primarily importance for crosslinguistic research on
motion event descriptions in general, and for research investigating the effects that
differing semantic patterns may have on non-linguistic cognition.
The primary goal of this work is to provide a comparative account of the semantics
of a substantial part of the English and the Spanish motion verb lexicons, focussing
specifically on self-agentive and non-agentive motion verbs (Talmy, 2000b: 28). Our
starting point is Talmy’s general semantic components for motion: Motion, Figure,
Ground, Path, Manner and Cause. Our analysis, moreover, delves into the broad
categories of Path and Manner so as to look for more subtle differences in their
motion lexicons; for that purpose, some types of Path (e.g., Berthele, 2004; Wälchli,
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2001) and a number of fine-grained manner categories or parameters (e.g., IbarretxeAntuñano, 2006a; Özçalişkan, 2004; Slobin, 2000, 2005), which have been identified
by scholars working on this field, will be used. On the whole, this thesis seeks to
provide an answer to the following general research questions: (1) which semantic
notions are generally conflated in English and Spanish motion verbs? (2) Do English
and Spanish have comparable path verb lexicons? In size? In semantic nature? And
(3) do English and Spanish lexicalise similar manner-of-motion information in their
verbs? Which manner details are more often exploited in each language? Does
English exhibit greater manner granularity for all subdomains of motion?
A total of 376 motion verbs in English and 257 in Spanish were compiled
with the help of available verb lists in the existing literature (Cifuentes-Honrubia,
1999; Levin & Rappaport-Hovav, 1992; Levin, 1993; Morimoto, 2001; and SnellHornby, 1983), monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, and thesauri. The motion
verbs under the scope of the present investigation include general motion verbs (i.e.,
no specific semantic information apart from the Motion component, such as the
Spanish verb moverse ‘to move oneself’, and the English move), accompany verbs
(cf. Levin (1993), e.g., escoltar ‘to escort’, guiar ‘to guide’, escort, guide, lead), and
path verbs (e.g., entrar ‘enter’, salir ‘exit’, arrive, come, depart, enter, exit, go) as
well as manner verbs. Manner verbs pertain to (a) human and animal locomotion
(e.g., andar ‘walk’, correr ‘run’, saltar ‘jump’, walk, run, fly, hop, pronk, slither),
(b) motion using a vehicle (e.g., conducir ‘to drive’, navegar ‘to navigate’, bike,
canoe, ferry, ship), (c) motion while dancing (e.g., bailotear ‘a careless way of
dancing’, waltz, foxtrot, twist), (d) motion of physical objects or inanimate entities
(e.g., rodar ‘roll’, oscilar ‘oscillate’, revolve, roll, spin, shake, swing) and (e) change
of posture (acostarse ‘to lay oneself down’, levantarse ‘to stand up’, arquearse ‘to
bend oneself’, kneel, lean, recline, twist). Drawing from dictionary definitions, each
motion verb will be analysed in terms of both the general and the more specific
semantic information which seems to be conveyed by the verb. Then, the semantics
of both languages will be compared and contrasted in terms of (a) their general
semantic distribution, (b) their path verbs, and (c) their manner verbs. Taken as a
whole, this methodology will enable us to better understand how the lexicon for
motion is organised in these two languages, to point out both crosslinguistic
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differences and similarities, and to formulate hypotheses for further psycholinguistic
research.
To address all the hypotheses and research questions that emerge from the
semantic analysis falls outside the limits of this dissertation as such an enterprise
would need a lifetime to be accomplished. The second part of this thesis, however,
aims to investigate an important subdomain of motion, that of human locomotion,
using experimental methods. This subdomain might be structured around three motor
patterns pertaining to motion on land: walk, run and jump. Walking seem to be the
most important and basic human motor pattern; it is the default way of moving for
humans. In contrast, running and jumping seem to be more peripheral activities as
people do not typically run or jump in order to go somewhere. Three
psycholinguistic studies will explore the semantics of human locomotion verbs and
the organisation of this subdomain of motion. The first study will be aimed at
exploring the defining features for each motor pattern, that is, which specific manner
details define the actions of walking, running and jumping. The goal of the second
study will be to provide psycholinguistic validation for some observations deriving
from the semantic analysis, namely, the claim that English and Spanish may organise
their human locomotion verb lexicons in a similar way (i.e., a larger number of
walking verbs over running and jumping verbs) despite the larger number of
walking, running and jumping verbs found in English. Finally, the third study will be
aimed at finding out the specific motor pattern which is denoted by a list of English
and Spanish motion verbs from our corpus.
1.3. Outline of the thesis
The present thesis is further organised into six chapters. Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and
Chapter 4 offer an extensive literature review on the theoretical background of this
dissertation, on the bulk of research on the topic of motion, and on the different
analyses and classifications of motion verbs which have been put forward. Chapter 5
and Chapter 6 address the semantics of the English and Spanish motion verb
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lexicons. Finally, Chapter 7 provides a summary of the key findings and suggests
avenues for future research.
Chapter 2 provides a brief but general overview of the theoretical background
of this dissertation. Section 2.1 deals with the birth and main tenets of the Cognitive
Linguistic enterprise in general, and with the main tenets and lines of research of
Cognitive Semantics, with special attention to Conceptual Semantics. In Section 2.2,
Talmy’s theory of lexicalisation patterns for motion is presented. The main concern
of Talmy’s work is the exploration of the systematic relations between meaning and
linguistic forms in order to find out whether languages exhibit a small number of
patterns (i.e., a typology) or a single pattern (i.e., a universal). In his exploration of
the domain of motion, he proposes two typologies: the three-way and the two-way
classifications of languages, which result from the two ways of looking at the
relation between meaning and linguistic forms. By looking at which semantic
information gets typically expressed in verb roots, he proposes the typology of pathconflating, manner-conflating and figure-conflating languages; by looking at which
linguistic forms typically encode the Path of motion, the typology of verb-framed
and satellite-framed languages is put forward. Section 2.3 presents two proposals for
reformulating Talmy’s binary typology so as to account for both a larger number of
languages and for the observations that languages within the same typological group
also show differences in the expression of Manner and of Path. Finally, in Section
2.4, Sapir and Whorf’s linguistic relativity hypothesis and a weaker version of this
hypothesis, Slobin’s thinking-for-speaking hypothesis are presented. The domain of
motion is suitable for exploring how language-specific semantic patterns influence
the way speakers of a language talk and think about motion.
Chapter 3 summarises the whole gamut of research influenced by the Talmian
theory of lexicalisation patterns for motion events. Such research might be grouped
into two blocks: Slobin’s thinking-for-speaking research (Section 3.2) and linguistic
relativity research (Section 3.3). Slobin’s hypothesis of thinking-for-speaking
encompasses several lines of research in the attempt to account for the pervasive
effects that language use has on mental processes tied to language (i.e., speaking,
writing, translating, gesturing, etc). Section 3.2 reviews research on the impact that
lexicalisation patterns have on narrative styles of verb- and satellite-framed
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languages and on the translation process. Moreover, research on sign languages and
co-speech gestures, on language acquisition, and on language processing is also
reviewed. Linguistic research on the expression of motion has documented habitual
ways of speaking and writing about motion which has served as foundations for
further investigating how children acquire these language-specific patterns, the
effects of these patterns in language processing and whether the effects go beyond
language and have an impact on non-linguistic cognition. In Section 3.3, linguistic
relativity research is assessed. The question of whether differences in the encoding
of motion result in divergent conceptualisations of motion events by speakers of
verb- and satellite-framed languages has been extensively investigated, but this
research has yielded inconclusive results. It is also suggested that the intrinsic nature
of the stimuli (i.e., the types of Path, the types of Manner and the types of Figure)
might be responsible for these divergent results.
Chapter 4 describes some classifications and analyses of motion verbs from
(a) different theoretical backgrounds, (b) online databases for English and Spanish
lexicons, and (c) research on motion events. Section 4.2 begins with an overview of
the Syntax-Semantics Interface approach to the analysis of motion verbs, which
explores how a verb’s semantics can determine the syntactic realisation of its
arguments. In Section 4.3, two classifications of English motion verbs within the
Functional-Lexematic model are presented. Next, Section 4.4 offers a brief overview
of some of the existing online databases for English and Spanish verb lexicons; in
these databases, classifications of motion verbs which range from the more
syntactically-oriented to the more semantically-oriented are outlined. Finally, in
Section 4.5, crosslinguistic research on manner and path verbs is reviewed. This
research analyses motion verbs in a more fine-grained fashion than under Talmy’s
initial formulation; scholars break the Path and the Manner component into more
granular categories which permit exploration of the semantics of path and manner
verbs across languages in a subtler way.
Chapter 5 explores the semantic nature of the English and the Spanish motion
verb lexicons and offers a contrastive account with special attention to the path and
manner dimensions of motion. Section 5.2 describes the aims, research questions,
corpus and the methodology followed. In section 5.3, the general distribution of
7
English and Spanish motion verbs, in terms of the general semantic components that
their verbs encode, are presented. Section 5.4 focuses on path verbs and zooms in to
the sort of path notions which seem to be typically expressed in these languages.
Next, Section 5.5 ponders the semantic nature of manner verbs in each language and
the sort of manner information which seems to be characteristically lexicalised in
these languages. Finally, Section 5.6 answers the research questions addressed
throughout the chapter and sums up the main conclusions, pointing out both
crosslinguistic differences and similarities.
Chapter 6 reports three experimental studies on human locomotion. In Section
6.2, the first study (i.e., the Definition and Feature Listing task) is reported; English
and Spanish native speakers are asked to define the verbs move, walk, run and jump,
and to list their defining features. Section 6.3 presents the second study (i.e., the Free
Verb Listing task), in which English and Spanish speakers are given one minute to
list verbs for moving, walking, running and jumping. In Section 6.4, the third study
(i.e., the Rating task) is reported; English and Spanish native speakers are asked to
rate whether a list of motion verbs are good examples of walking, of running and of
jumping. This chapter sheds light on how English and Spanish organise their human
locomotion verb lexicons and into the complex semantics of human locomotion
verbs.
Chapter 7 summarises the main findings of this dissertation, addresses
possible directions for future research and suggests some applications of the work
presented. This thesis concludes by suggesting the need for further experimental
research on the semantics of motion verbs and for further crosslinguistic research to
test whether the tendencies documented in this work apply to other verb- and
satellite-framed languages.
8
CHAPTER 2
COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS AND THE THEORY OF
LEXICALISATION PATTERNS
2.1. An overview of Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Semantics
2.1.1. Introduction
2.1.2. Cognitive Linguistics
2.1.3. Cognitive Semantics
2.1.3.1. Main tenets and lines of research
2.1.3.2. Conceptual Semantics
2.2. Talmy’s theory of lexicalisation patterns
2.2.1. Introduction
2.2.2. The Motion Event
2.2.3. The Three-way typology: the verb root
2.2.3.1. Lexicalisation pattern: Motion + Co-event
2.2.3.2. Lexicalisation pattern: Motion + Path
2.2.3.3. Lexicalisation pattern: Motion + Figure
2.2.3.4. Other minor patterns
2.2.3.5. Split and parallel systems of conflation
2.2.4. The Two-way typology: Path of motion
2.2.5. Typological shifts
2.3. Typology revisited
2.3.1. Introduction
2.3.2. Equipollently-framed languages
2.3.3. Cline of Manner salience
2.3.4. Cline of Path salience
CHAPTER 2. COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS AND THE THEORY OF LEXICALISATION PATTERNS
2.4. The Linguistic-Relativity Hypothesis
2.4.1. Introduction
2.4.2. Sapir and Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
2.4.3. Slobin’s Thinking-for-Speaking
10
2.1. An Overview of Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Semantics
2.1.1. Introduction
To provide a comprehensive description of Cognitive Linguistics would fall outside
the limits of this work; one of the latest introductions (Evans & Green, 2006) is more
than eight hundred pages long. Instead, we will try to provide a brief but general
overview which will give the reader unfamiliar with Cognitive Linguistics a taste of
the background of this dissertation.
In the following section, we will briefly deal with the birth and main tenets of
Cognitive Linguistics, which must be seen as a general movement instead of a
unified theory. Section 2.1.3 provides an overview of the main tenets and main lines
of research of Cognitive Semantics, with a special attention to Conceptual Semantics.
2.1.2. Cognitive Linguistics
Cognitive linguistics […] is an approach to language that is based on our experience of the
world and the way we perceive and conceptualize it.
(Ungerer & Schmid, 1996: x)
In the eighties, a new approach to the study of language began to develop: Cognitive
Linguistics. This school of linguistics was born as a reaction against formal
approaches to language, such as Noam Chomsky’s Generative Grammar (e.g., 1957,
1965). Cognitive Linguistics rejects the main claims made by Generative Linguistics:
(1) language is an innate and autonomous cognitive faculty; (2) to know a language
is to know its grammar, which consists of a finite number of combinatory rules; (3)
syntax (form) is the main focus of linguistic analysis (and thus semantics (meaning)
is largely overlooked). The birth of Cognitive Linguistics is also rooted in the
emergence of the second generation of Cognitive Science in the 1970s, especially in
research on human categorisation (Rosch, 1973, 1975). The field of Cognitive
Linguistics is defined by two commitments: (1) the Generalisation commitment, and
(2) the Cognitive commitment. The Generalization commitment represents a
11
dedication to characterizing the general principles governing all aspects of human
language: phonology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. The Cognitive Commitment
represents the commitment to providing a characterization of these principles that
reflects what is known about human cognition. Therefore, cognitive linguists are
committed to characterizing the general principles governing all aspects of human
language while being faithful to empirical discoveries from parallel disciplines of
cognitive science such as cognitive psychology, developmental psychology,
psychophysical and neurophysical research about the nature of our mind and/or
brain, and artificial intelligence.
Cognitive Linguistics adopts a philosophical stance called experientialism,
which is opposed to objectivism. Objectivism had been the prevailing point of view
in the Western tradition from the times of Plato and Aristotle up to the 20th century.
For objectivists, there is an external objective world that is independent of our
perceptions and interactions with it. However, for experientialists, this external world
is not fully independent from our perceptions and interactions. Objectivists claim that
thinking amounts to symbol manipulation. Those symbols acquire their meanings by
their direct connection to the outside world. Therefore, our mind is a mirror of reality
and is independent from our bodies. In contrast, for experientialists, thinking is not a
mere mechanical manipulation of symbols; our apprehension of the world is not
direct but constrained or mediated in large measure by our conceptual and perceptual
systems. The peculiar nature of our bodies and brains, especially our sensorimotor
system, shapes our very possibilities for conceptualisation and categorisation (Lakoff
& Johnson, 1999: 19-22). Thus, thought and language are embodied, i.e., based on
our experiences with the environment we inhabit.
Cognitive Linguistics must be seen as a movement or an enterprise, and not as
a specific theory (Evans & Green, 2006: 3; Cuenca & Hilferty, 1999: 22). Instead, it
is an approach that has adopted a number of guiding principles and assumptions,
which have led to diverse research directions and to the proposal of a number of
theories 1 . The fundamental assumptions or tenets of Cognitive Linguistics can be
1
Evans, Bergen & Zinken (2007) distinguish two main branches of the cognitive linguistic movement:
(1) Cognitive Semantics (cf. Lakoff 1987; Langacker, 1987; Fillmore, 1985; Talmy, 2000a, 2000b)
and (2) cognitive approaches to grammar such as Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar (1987, 1991, 2005)
12
summarised as follows: (1) language is not a modular system in our brain; (2)
language reflects general cognitive principles; (3) language and cognition are
embodied, that is, our linguistic and conceptual categories are grounded in physical,
social and cultural experiences; (4) language is all about meaning; language is the
vehicle of meaning and also a window into conceptualisation; (5) there are common
structuring principles which hold across all language areas (phonology, morphology,
syntax, semantics and pragmatics).
Having dealt with the birth of Cognitive Linguistics and its main
assumptions, we move on to one of the main areas in cognitive linguistic research:
Cognitive Semantics.
2.1.3. Cognitive Semantics
Cognitive Semantics was born out of the dissatisfaction with formal theories of
meaning based on the objectivist world view. In formal theories such as truthconditional semantics, meaning was seen as the link between the world and words,
completely disengaged from human cognition (Sweetser, 1990: 4). In contrast,
cognitive semanticists consider linguistic meaning as a manifestation of conceptual
structure, which emerges from bodily experience. Accordingly, Cognitive Semantics
is concerned with the relationship between experience, cognition and language, with
the result that it explores the connections between human bodily experience, the
conceptual system and the semantic structure expressed by language.
2.1.3.1. Main tenets and lines of research
Like Cognitive Linguistics, Cognitive Semantics is not a single theory. Rather,
cognitive semanticists are guided by four central assumptions or principles as
summarised by Evans & Green (2006: 157):
and Construction Grammar (cf. Bergen & Chang, 2005; Goldberg, 1995; Hilferty, 2003; Kay &
Fillmore 1999). Some of the theories developed within Cognitive Semantics are The Cognitive
Theory of Metaphor and Metonymy (cf. Barcelona, 2000, 2002; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Lakoff,
1987; Turner, 1996; Soriano, 2005), and Blending Theory (cf. Fauconnier, 1994; Fauconnier &
Turner, 2002).
13
a.
Conceptual structure is embodied. Our conceptual system arises from our
bodily experiences and is meaningful by virtue of its grounding in these
experiences. From this assumption it follows that any theory of conceptual
structure should be consonant with the ways in which we experience the
world around us.
b.
Semantic structure is conceptual structure. The meanings conventionally
associated with words and other linguistics units (bound morphemes,
constructions, etc) can be equated with concepts 2 . This is not to say that
semantic structure and conceptual structure are identical: linguistic concepts
are only a subset of the possible concepts in the mind of the speaker.
c.
Meaning representation is encyclopaedic; words do not represent ‘neatly
packaged bundles of meaning […] but serve as points of access to vast
repositories of knowledge’ (Evans & Tyler, 2006: 160). In order to
understand the meaning of a given utterance, we draw on our encyclopaedic
knowledge relating to the specific situation depicted by the utterance to
construct its meaning.
d.
Meaning construction is conceptualisation. Meaning is not fixed but a matter
of construal and conventionalisation. ‘Meaning construction is […] a
dynamic process whereby linguistic units serve as prompts for an array of
conceptual operations and the recruitment of background knowledge. It
follows from this view that meaning is a process rather than a discrete ‘thing’
that can be ‘packaged’ by language.’ (Evans & Tyler, 2006: 162).
2
Unlike other approaches, the study of the meaning of both open-class words (nouns, verbs and
adjectives) and closed-class words (prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, etc) fall within the purview of
cognitive semantics. In fact, Talmy mostly concentrates on closed-class words – or grammatical
systems – as ‘the closed-class system of language is its most fundamental and comprehensive
conceptual structuring system’ (Talmy, 2000a: 13).
14
Having laid out the basic assumptions of Cognitive Semantics, we turn to a
brief overview of some of the main issues investigated within this approach: the
encyclopaedic nature of meaning, categorisation, the bodily basis of meaning, and
conceptual structure.
Encyclopaedic nature of meaning
Formal linguistics holds that meaning can be divided into a dictionary component
and an encyclopaedic component. The dictionary component is the sole object of
study of lexical semantics, whereas the encyclopaedic component is external to
lexical semantics, falling within the domain of world knowledge or pragmatics. The
dictionary view of meaning separates core meaning (semantics) from non-core
meanings emerging in context (pragmatics). For cognitive semanticists there is no
such distinction between semantics and pragmatics, and they hold there is only
encyclopaedic meaning, which subsumes dictionary knowledge (Evans, Bergen &
Zinken, 2007).
Research on the encyclopaedic nature of meaning has focused on how word
meaning is organised; the encyclopaedic knowledge we have of any given word is
not a disorganised mess, but it is structured. One of the theories concerning the
organisation of word meaning is Charles Fillmore’s Frame Semantics (e.g., 1977,
1985) which proposes that word meanings are organised in frames: detailed
knowledge structures emerging from our everyday experiences. A given frame
relates entities associated with a particular situation. For example, the BUY frame
consists of a buyer, a seller, the goods, and the money (Fillmore, 1977: 104).
According to Fillmore, word meanings are understood by virtue of their connection
to a particular frame. Thus, the meanings of the English verbs buy or sell (see
examples below) cannot be understood independently of the BUY frame with which
they are associated. The verb buy profiles the buyer (Peter) against the whole frame,
whereas the verb sell profiles the seller (Mary).
(1)
a. Peter bought a DVD player from Mary
b. Mary sold a DVD player to Peter
15
In sum, to understand the meanings of words we necessarily evoke a frame. Another
related theoretical construct can be seen in Schank & Abelson’s scripts (1977),
which are defined by Ungerer & Schmid (1996: 231-214) as ‘knowledge structures
that are particularly designed for frequently recurring event sequences’. For
example, the RESTAURANT script is divided into four scenes or sequences: entering
the restaurant, ordering, eating and exiting.
Other proposals of the way we organise our experiences in networks of
knowledge are George Lakoff’s Idealised Cognitive Models (1987), Gilles
Fauconnier’s Mental Spaces (1994) and Ronald Langacker’s Cognitive Domains
(1987). In Langacker’s theory, ‘[d]omains are necessarily cognitive entities: mental
experiences, representational spaces, concepts, or conceptual complexes’ (1987:
147). Our concepts can be described in terms of profile and base (1987: Section 5.1);
a word’s profile is the part of its semantic structure which is in focus, whereas the
base is part of its semantic structure not in focus but necessary in order to understand
the profile. As with frames, the meaning of a word can only be understood if a larger
system of concepts is also understood. For example, the concept of KNEE (profile)
presupposes the concept of a leg (base); to understand the meaning of KNEE, one
should know it is a specific part or joint of a leg.
Categorisation
Another phenomenon that has received great attention within cognitive semantics is
categorisation, that is, our ability to identify entities as members of groups or
categories. Research by Eleanor Rosch during the 1970s challenged the classical
view of categories, seen as sets of necessary and sufficient conditions with clear
boundaries, in favour of a prototype organisation of categories. The findings from
Rosch showed that the boundaries between categories are fuzzy and that membership
is graded instead of a matter of ‘all-or-nothing’. For example, for the category BIRD,
robins or sparrows are considered as better examples or prototypical members
whereas penguins and ostriches are less ‘bird-like’. George Lakoff’s notion of
Idealised Cognitive Model (1987) could be seen as an application to language of
Rosch’s observations on prototypicality. According to Lakoff (1987), we organise
our knowledge by means of structures called Idealised Cognitive Models (ICMs);
16
prototypical members are those who fit with the background assumptions and
expectations of the ICM, of our ideal representation of the world. Let’s illustrate the
notion of ICM with the classic example of BACHELOR: Casanova would fit perfectly
into our ICM of being a bachelor because he is unmarried but marriageable whereas
the Pope would not fit as nicely in this category. The Pope, although unmarried, is
not a prototypical bachelor because the concept of POPE is more often understood in
terms of the ICM of the ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, whose clergy cannot marry.
The bodily basis of meaning: image schemas
In his 1987 book, The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination,
and Reason, the cognitive philosopher Mark Johnson presented the notion of image
schema. In his own words, ‘an image schema is a recurring, dynamic pattern of our
perceptual interactions and motor programs that gives coherence and structure to our
experience’ (Johnson, 1987: xiv).
Let us take a simple example: the CONTAINER image schema. We experience
physical containment in our surroundings when we move in and out of rooms,
buildings, etc. We manipulate objects placing them in containers (cups, boxes, bags,
etc.). In addition, we are aware of our bodies as containers into which we put food,
water, air and out of which other things emerge (air, blood, food and water wastes,
etc.). In each of these cases there is a repeatable or recurrent spatial structure, namely
the CONTAINER image schema which has the following structure: an inside, a
boundary, and an outside. Johnson’s view is that we impose the CONTAINER image
schema on different entities, places, and events in the world via our perceptual and
conceptual systems.
Image schemas have a number of properties: (a) they are preconceptual and
prelinguistic, i.e., they derive from sensory perception enabling preverbal thought
and providing the foundations for language acquisition (Mandler, 1992, 2004). (b)
Image schemas are structured; a schema consists of a small number of parts standing
in simple relations, by virtue of which it can structure indefinitely many perceptions,
images and events. Thus, image schemas underlie our concepts. (c) They are not rich,
concrete images or mental pictures; they do not have the specificity of such rich
17
images or mental pictures. They operate, instead, at the level of generality and
abstraction (Johnson, 1987: 23-24).
Conceptual Structure
Cognitive semanticists start from the assumption that semantic structure reflects
conceptual structure. They are concerned with the conceptual structuring
mechanisms reflected in linguistic structure and how the findings relative to the
linguistic representation of conceptual content are to be related to more general
cognitive processes. According to the cognitive semanticist Leonard Talmy,
language is ‘one system of mental functioning through which the mind could be
studied more generally’ (in Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 2006c: 254). The analysis of
conceptual structure and language is central and fundamental for the study of
cognition as it serves as a starting point to further understanding the organising
principles of other systems, whether by generalising the similarities or by contrasting
the differences.
In the following section, we will provide a detailed account of Leonard
Talmy’s theory of conceptual structure.
2.1.3.2. Conceptual Semantics
Leonard Talmy was one of the pioneers of the cognitive linguistic enterprise during
the 1970s. In his introduction to the two 2000 volumes under the generic title of
Toward a Cognitive Semantics, he explicitly characterises research on cognitive
semantics and the main methodology to be followed:
‘research on cognitive
semantics is research on conceptual content and its organization in language and,
hence, [research] on the nature of conceptual content and organization in general’
(Talmy, 2000a: 4). Moreover, he claims that introspection is a legitimate
methodology for accessing conceptual content. As the object of study is meaning and
‘meaning is located in conscious experience’, introspection takes the researcher to
where the subjective data are located. He argues that ‘the use of introspection must
be recognized as an appropriate and arguably necessary methodology in cognitive
science, together with the other generally accepted methodologies’ (Talmy, 2000a:
6).
18
Our conceptual system, as manifested in language, is made up of two
systems: the conceptual content system and the conceptual structuring system. Taken
together, these two systems contribute to building up different aspects of our
understanding of a scene. As their names suggest, the conceptual structuring system
provides the skeleton or scaffolding for a given scene, whereas the conceptual
content system provides rich substantive information. Thus, the meanings associated
with the conceptual structuring system are rather schematic while those associated
with the conceptual content system are highly detailed. The manifestation in
language of the two systems of our cognitive representation (CR) is done by the
grammatical and the lexical systems (see Figure 2.1).
The grammatical or closed-class system includes both an overt type and an
abstract or implicit type of grammatical forms. Forms of the overt type can be bound
or free. Overt bound forms are inflections, derivations, and clitics. Overt free forms
can include, for example, determiners, prepositions, conjunctions, and particles.
Talmy considers that suprasegmental forms such as intonation patterns may be also
included in the overt type. The abstract or implicit type of closed-class forms, that is,
the ones without phonological substance, can include major grammatical categories
(e.g., ‘noun’, ‘verb’), grammatical subcategories (e.g., ‘count noun’, ‘mass noun’),
grammatical relations (e.g., ‘subject’, ‘direct object’), word order patterns, etc.
‘[P]erhaps also to be included among closed classes are certain categories of
grammatical complexes, including for instance grammatical constructions, syntactic
structures, and complement structures’ (Talmy, 2000a: 23). On the other hand, the
lexical or open-class system, includes roots of nouns, of verbs, and of adjectives. The
extensive system of ideophones or ‘expressive forms’ as well as lexical complexes
such as collocations might also be included as a type of open-class (Talmy, 2000a:
22).
On the whole, the grammatical and lexical subsystems seem to specify
different portions of a cognitive representation; the grammatical elements of a
sentence determine the majority of its structure, whereas the lexical elements
together contribute the majority of its content. ‘The grammatical specifications in a
sentence, thus, provide a conceptual framework or, imagistically, a skeletal structure
19
or scaffolding for the conceptual material that is lexically specified’ (Talmy, 2000a:
21).
CONCEPTUAL
STRUCTURE
CONCEPTUAL
STRUCTURING
SYSTEM
CONCEPTUAL
CONTENT
SYSTEM
LANGUAGE
CLOSED-CLASS
SYSTEM
(grammar)
OPEN-CLASS
SYSTEM
(lexicon)
Figure 2.1. The bifurcation of conceptual structure as it is reflected in language
Though Talmy’s work has examined both the lexical and the grammatical systems,
he has been mainly concerned with the semantics of the closed-class system. While
it is impossible to propose a finite inventory of open-class concepts, Talmy claims
that there is a universally available inventory of concepts which is encoded by
closed-class forms. A language expresses a selection of those concepts, but it does
not necessarily express all the available concepts. By examining the semantics of the
closed-class systems across languages, he identifies a number of schematic systems
which give structure to our conceptual system.
Schematic systems
The conceptual structuring system, according to Talmy, is based on a number of
schematic systems 3 . These schematic systems provide the basic architecture upon
which the rich content meaning (of open-class forms) hinges. In an interview with
Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2006), Talmy identifies five key schematic systems: (1) the
3
In part 1 of volume I (2000), Talmy introduces the notion of schematic systems. In the remaining
three parts of that volume, he devotes chapters to three schematic systems: the Configurational
System, the Attentional System and the Force Dynamics System. A comprehensive account of
Talmy’s schematic systems is also to be found in Evans & Green (2006: Section 6.2.2, Section 15.2).
20
Configurational System; (2) the Perspectival System; (3) the Attentional System; (4)
the Force Dynamics System, and (5) the Cognitive State System.
The first schematic system, the Configurational System, represents structure
for space or time and divides the scene into parts and participants. It includes much
that is within the schemas evoked by spatial prepositions, by temporal conjunctions,
and by aspect and tense markers. For example, at home represents a point-of-space,
in five minutes an extent-of-time, etc.
While the first schematic system establishes the basic delineations by which a
scene or event being referred to is structured, the second schematic system, the
Perspectival System, specifies the perspective from which one views a scene or
places one’s mental eyes. The perspective system includes at least the following
conceptual distinctions: spatial or temporal positioning within a larger frame, the
distance away from the referent entity, its change or lack of change of perspective
point in the course of time as well as the path it follows, and the viewing direction.
For example, in sentence (2) we have an internal perspective location, that is, our
mental eyes are inside the room. However, in sentence (3) the scene is viewed from
outside the room, in other words, we have an exterior perspective location.
(2)
The lunchroom door slowly opened and two men walked in.
(3)
Two men slowly opened the lunchroom door and walked in.
The third schematic system, the Attentional System, establishes how one is to
distribute one’s attention over the scene. For instance, in (4), the focal attention is on
the seller, while in example (5) the focal attention is mapped onto the buyer with
lesser attention on the remainder.
(4)
The clerk sold the vase to the customer.
(5)
The customer bought the vase from the clerk.
Furthermore, there are also patterns of distributing attention, such as the windowing
of attention, in which one or more (discontinuous) regions within a referent scene are
allocated greater attention. According to Talmy, ‘[t]he portions that are foregrounded
by inclusion are windowed, and the portions that are backgrounded by exclusion are
21
gapped’ (2000a: 257). In example (6), we find a maximal windowing of attention
over the whole path of the event. In contrast, in (7), there is a final windowing of
attention with and initial and medial gapping of the path.
(6)
The crate fell out of the plane through the air into the ocean = maximal
windowing
(7)
The crate fell into the ocean = final windowing of attention
The three systems presented above can be complemented by a fourth
schematic system, Force Dynamics, which deals with the forces exerted by and the
causal interactions among the entities 4 in the referent scene. Included here are the
exertion of force, resistance to said force, the overcoming of such resistance,
blockage of the expression of force, removal of such blockage, etc. Force Dynamics
refers not only to physical force interactions but also to psychological and social
interactions, conceived in terms of psychosocial pressures. In English, Force
Dynamics appears not only in subsets of conjunctions and prepositions, but also it is
the semantic category that ‘most uniquely characterizes the grammatical category of
modals as a whole, both in their basic and in their epistemic usages’ (Talmy, 2000a:
409).
A fifth schematic system of Cognitive State is also posited. This schematic
system comprises a sentient agent’s volition and intention. Volition is a cognitive
event in a sentient agent that causes some motion of the agent’s body or body parts.
As a separate cognitive state, the agent’s scope of intention is the amount of a causal
chain that the Agent intends to happen. Another major division within the schematic
system of cognitive state is epistemics, which refers to characterisations of a sentient
entity’s states of knowledge. This division includes indicative-subjunctive type
distinctions, forms for probability and possibility, etc. Cognitive state includes still
4
Talmy (2000a: 413) remarks ‘[t]he primary distinction that language marks here is a role difference
between the two entities exerting the forces. One force-exerting entity is singled out for focal attention
– the salient issue in the interaction is whether this entity is able to manifest its force tendency or, on
the contrary, is overcome. The second force entity, correlatively, is considered for the effect that it has
on the first, effectively overcoming it or not’. The focal force entity is called the Agonist, and the force
element that opposes it the Antagonist.
22
further divisions, such as expectations, which cover both the expected and the
surprising, as represented by closed-class systems such as the how / so forms in
English: How big your eyes are! Your eyes are so big! Finally, the affective division
(as expressed by diminutive and pejorative closed-class forms) is also a part of the
Cognitive State schematic system.
On the whole, these five schematic systems relate to fundamental aspects of
our embodied experience. The first three schematic systems (Configurational,
Perspectival and Attentional systems) have much to do with our visual perception
whereas the last two posited schematic systems (Force Dynamics and Cognitive
State) relate to our bodily experience of forces, pressures, etc, and to our intentions,
knowledge and expectations.
2.2. Talmy’s theory of lexicalisation patterns
2.2.1. Introduction
In volume II of Toward a Cognitive Semantics (2000), Leonard Talmy delves into
the exploration of the systematic relations in language between meaning and overt
linguistic forms, in other words, into the process of lexicalisation: ‘lexicalization is
involved where a particular meaning component is found to be in regular association
with a particular morpheme’ (Talmy, 2000b: 24).
His basic assumption is that we can isolate elements or components
separately within the domain of meaning and within the domain of linguistic
expression. Then, the next step a semanticist has to take is to examine which
semantic elements are expressed by which linguistic elements. Talmy remarks that
this relationship is not one-to-one; a combination of semantic elements may be
expressed by a single linguistic element, and a single semantic element may be
expressed by a combination of linguistic elements. Moreover, semantic elements of
different types may be expressed by the same type of surface element, and the same
type of semantic elements may be expressed by several different surface elements.
By way of illustration, an English motion verb (surface element) can encode distinct
types of semantic information: Manner of motion (e.g., hop), Cause (e.g., kick) and
Path (e.g., exit, enter). On the other hand, the Path element may be encoded in
23
English by verbs and by prepositions (e.g., out, into), that is, by two different
linguistic elements. According to Talmy, by looking at the relations between
meaning and linguistic forms, a range of universal principles and typological patterns
might emerge 5 .
On the whole, his approach to lexicalisation can be summarized as follows
(adapted from (1) in Talmy (2000b: 22)):
a.
Determine various semantic entities 6 in a language.
b.
Determine various surface entities in the language.
c.
Observe which (a) entities are expressed by which (b) entities – in what
combination and with what relationship – noting any patterns.
d.
Compare
(c)-type
patterns
across
different
languages,
noting
any
metapatterns (universal principles).
e.
Compare (c)-type patterns across different stages of a single language
through time, noting any shifts or nonshifts that might be guided by a given
universal principle (or a (d)-type metapattern)
f.
Consider the cognitive processes and structures that might give rise to the
phenomena observed in (a) through (e).
Finally, two directions or perspectives can be adopted for exploring meaninglinguistic expression relations, both of which have been proven fruitful. One
direction is to hold constant a selected surface or linguistic entity and observe which
semantic entities are variously expressed by it, and the other direction is to keep a
particular semantic entity constant and observe the surface or linguistic entities in
which it can appear. The two typologies proposed by Talmy, the three-way
classification (Talmy, 1972, 1985) and the two-way classification of languages
(Talmy, 1991, 2000b), to which we will devote sections 2.2.3 and 2.2.4 respectively,
result from adopting either of these two possible directions.
5
Talmy (2000b: Chapter 2, Section 3) provides an exhaustive classification of different types of
typologies and universals which summarises and organises his research findings.
6
According to Talmy, entities are ‘elements, relations, and structures: both particular cases and
categories of these’ (Talmy, 2000b: 22).
24
In sum, Talmy’s concern is to find out whether, for a particular semantic
domain, languages exhibit a wide variety of patterns, a small number of patterns (i.e.,
a typology), or a single pattern (i.e., a universal). One of the domains favoured by his
research is the semantic domain of Motion, though his findings are also generalised
to other domains 7 . He has examined the conceptual structure of motion events as
well as the typological patterns in which this conceptual structure is parcelled out. In
the following sections, these issues will be addressed.
2.2.2. The Motion Event
Before we concentrate on the semantics of a motion event, we need to define what an
event is. According to Talmy, an event is a portion of reality which has been
delimited or bounded by the human mind. As he explains: ‘[t]he human mind in
perception or conception can extend a boundary around a portion of what would
otherwise be a continuum, whether of space, time […] and ascribe to the excerpted
contents within the boundary the property of being a single unit entity’ (Talmy,
2000b: 215). Moreover, an event can be conceptualised as having a particular type of
internal structure and degree of complexity. Thus, there are complex events, which
are made up of a main event or framing event and a subordinate event or co-event
(both of which are ‘conceptualized as unitary events’), together with the relation that
the co-event bears to the framing event.
Talmy considers a situation containing motion and the continuation of a
stationary location alike as a motion event. In his own words:
The basic Motion event consists of one object (the Figure) moving or located with respect
to another object (the reference object or Ground). It is analyzed as having four
components: besides Figure and Ground, there are Path and Motion. The Path (with
capital P) is the path followed or site occupied by the Figure object with respect to the
Ground object. The component of Motion (with capital M) refers to the presence per se of
motion or locatedness in the event […] In addition to these internal components, a Motion
7
Talmy (1991) suggests the typology for motion events extends as well to five other events: temporal
contouring, state change, action correlation and realisation. For some examples see section 2.2.4. For a
detailed account see Talmy (1991) and Talmy (2000b: Sections 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, and 2.8).
25
event can be associated with an external Co-event that most often bears the relation of
Manner or of Cause to it. (Talmy, 2000b: 25).
Let us illustrate it with the following example:
(8)
Harry walked quietly down the stairs.
Harry is the Figure, the stairs is the Ground and down is the Path. The verb, to walk
expresses simultaneously the fact of Motion (framing event) and the Manner of
motion (Co-event).
The terms Figure and Ground 8 were taken from Gestalt psychology, but
Talmy gave them a distinct semantic interpretation: ‘[t]he Figure is a moving or
conceptually movable entity whose path or site is at issue. The Ground is a reference
frame, or a reference object stationary within a reference frame, with respect to
which the Figure’s path, or site is characterized’ (Talmy, 2000b: 26).
At this point, it is important to define the two types of motion found in
motion events: translational motion and self-contained motion. In Talmy’s (2000b:
35) words, ‘[i]n translational motion, an object’s basic location shifts from one point
to another in space. In self-contained Motion, an object keeps its same, or “average,”
location. Self-contained Motion generally consists of oscillation, rotation, dilation
(expansion and contraction), wiggle, local wander, or rest’. Let us consider examples
(9), (10) and (11) to illustrate these notions.
(9)
Ray entered the room = translational motion
(10)
The butterfly hovered over the flower = self-contained motion
8
According to Talmy, these notions have several advantages over Fillmore’s cases. The notion of
Ground captures the commonality of functioning as reference object for a figural entity which is
present in Fillmore’s separate cases of ‘Location’, ‘Source’, ‘Goal’, and ‘Path’. The terms Figure and
Ground are close equivalents of Langacker’s trajector and landmark (1987: 217): trajector is ‘the
figure within a relational profile’, whereas landmark refers to ‘other salient entities in a relational
predication’.
26
(11)
Claire slid through the hall in her socks = self-contained + translational
motion
Example (9) depicts the Figure’s change of location from the outside to the inside of
the room. In contrast, example (10) shows self-contained motion; the Figure stay
over the flower by moving its wings. Sometimes, it is difficult to tell translational
and self-contained motion apart, as we observe in (11). The manner verb to slide
includes a component of friction, or rubbing (i.e., self-contained motion) between the
Figure (Claire) and the Ground (the hall). However, such friction can only exist in
the course of the Figure’s translational motion (through the hall). Thus, in English,
the activity of self-contained motion has often come to be anchored in the framework
of translational motion (Talmy, 2000b: 228-229).
Self-contained motion is intrinsically linked to manner of motion, in other
words, to the Manner relation between the co-event and the motion event. In the
Manner relation, the co-event co-occurs with the motion event, as we have seen in
example (11), and is conceptualised as an additional activity that the Figure of the
motion event exhibits. This activity directly pertains to the motion event but is
distinct from it. However, the relation between the co-event and the motion event
need not be limited to that of Manner, rather it can bear a wide range of relations
(Talmy, 2000b: 42-47):
a. Causal relation: ‘the Co-event can precede the main Motion event in the case of
onset causation, or it can co-occur with the main Motion event in the case of
extended causation’ (Talmy, 2000b: 44-45).
(12)
Our tent blew down into the gully from a gust of wind = Onset causation
(13)
I squeezed the toothpaste out of the tube = Extended causation
b. Precursion relation: the Co-event precedes the main motion event but does not
cause or assist its occurrence. In the example below, the splintering of the glass
preceded but did not cause the motion of the glass onto the carpet.
(14)
The glass splintered onto the carpet.
27
c. Enablement relation: the Co-event directly precedes the main motion event and
enables the occurrence of an event that causes the Motion but does not itself cause
this Motion:
(15)
I scooped jellybeans up into her sack
(16)
Could you reach/grab that bottle down off the shelf?
d. Reverse enablement: the Co-event named by the verb is an event that has
previously taken place and that now gets undone. This new event, in turn, enables the
main motion event named by the verb particle ‘auf’ in the following example:
(17)
Ich habe den Sack aufgebunden (Lit. I have the sack open-tied = I untied the
sack and opened it).
e. Concomitance relation: the Co-event co-occurs with the main motion event and is
an activity that the Figure of the motion event additionally exhibits. But this activity
does not in itself pertain to the concurrent Motion, that is, it could just take place by
itself:
(18)
She wore a green dress to the party.
(19)
I whistled past the graveyard.
f. Concurrent result: the Co-event results from or is caused by the main motion event,
and would not otherwise occur:
(20)
The door slammed shut.
(21)
The rocket splashed into the water.
g. Subsequence relation: the Co-event takes place directly after the main motion
event, and is enabled by, caused by, or is the purpose of that motion event:
(22)
I’ll stop down at your office (on my way out of the building).
(23)
They locked the prisoner into his cell.
28
Now that we have offered a definition of a motion event and examined the
semantic components which underpin the conceptualisation of this event and its
varying relations with a Co-event, we move on to deal with the characteristic
lexicalisation patterns observed for motion events. In the next two sections, the two
typologies of lexicalisation patterns proposed by Talmy are presented in detail9 . As
we briefly mentioned in the introduction, the three-way classification (Talmy, 1972,
1985) and two-way classification of languages (Talmy, 1991, 2000b) represent a
different perspective taken on the relations between the semantic level and the
morphosyntactic (linguistic) level. The former perspective kept constant a
morphosyntactic constituent, the verb root, and looked at which semantic
components were characteristically placed in it by various languages. It was found
that most languages characteristically express either the Path, the Co-event (the
Manner or the Cause), or the Figure in addition to the fact of Motion in the verb. In
the later perspective, the semantic component of Path was kept constant, focusing the
examination on which morphosyntactic constituent it was characteristically placed in
by various languages. It was observed that most languages characteristically place
the Path component either in the verb root (in verb-framed languages) or in the
satellite 10 and/or preposition (in satellite-framed languages).
2.2.3. The three-way typology: the verb root
This typology results from looking at which semantic components are
characteristically lexicalised in verb roots by several languages. Three typologically
principal lexicalisation types for verb roots are presented by virtue of the verb root
expressing either the Co-event (Manner or Cause), the Path, or the Figure in addition
to the fact of Motion.
9
Although some European linguists, Bally (1965), Tesnière (1959) and Wandruzska (1976) had
already pointed out differences in the lexicalisation of motion in French and German, they had not
provided a systematic or theoretical account of the phenomena involved.
10
According to Talmy (2000b: 102), a satellite is ‘the grammatical category of any constituent that is
in a sister relation to the verb root’. Within this category, English verb particles, German separable
and inseparable verb prefixes, Russian verb prefixes, etc are included.
29
Other conflations or minor patterns may exist within a language, as we will
see at the end of this section, although languages are categorised according to the
most characteristic lexicalisation pattern they exhibit. In most cases, a language uses
only one of these types for the verb in its most characteristic expression of Motion.
According to Talmy (2000b: 27), ‘characteristic means that (1) it is colloquial in
style, rather than literary, stilted, and so on; (2) it is frequent in occurrence in speech,
rather than only occasional; (3) it is pervasive, rather than limited – that is, a wide
range of semantic notions are expressed in this type’.
2.2.3.1. Lexicalisation pattern: Motion + Co-event
In one group of languages, including Finno-Ugric, Chinese, Ojibwa, Warlpiri and all
branches of Indo-European languages (except for Romance languages), the verb
typically expresses at once the Motion and a Co-event, usually either the Manner or
the Cause of the Motion. English is the prototypical example of this group.
(24)
English expressions of Motion with conflated Manner or Cause taken from
Talmy (2000: 28)
Move + Manner
Non-agentive
a.
The rock slid/rolled/bounced down the hill
b.
The gate swung/creaked shut on its rusty hinges
c.
The smoke swirled/squeezed through the opening
Agentive
d.
I slid/rolled/bounced the keg into the storeroom
e.
I twisted/popped the cork out of the bottle
Self-agentive
f.
I ran/limped/jumped/stumbled/rushed/groped my way down the stairs
g.
She wore a green dress to the party
Move + Cause
Non-agentive
h.
The napkin blew off the table
30
i.
The bone pulled loose from its socket
j.
The water boiled down to the midline of the pot
Agentive
k.
I pushed/threw/kicked the keg into the storeroom
l.
I blew/flicked the ant off my plate
m.
I chopped/sawed the tree down to the ground at the base
n.
I knocked/pounded/ hammered the nail into the board with a mallet
At this point, the terms non-agentive, agentive and self-agentive motion call
for a definition. Firstly, non-agentive motion has to do with situations in which
entities that are incapable of motion on their own perform some motion. Secondly,
agentive motion refers to a motion event whose Figure is moved by an agent; the
agent causes the motion but the verb can express either its Cause or the Manner in
which the Figure moves. Finally, self-agentive motion refers to events in which
Figures are able to move by themselves.
2.2.3.2. Lexicalisation pattern: Motion + Path
In the second typological pattern for the expression of motion, the verb conflates
both the fact of Motion and Path. Semitic, Polynesian, Romance, Korean, Turkish,
Tamil, Nez Perce, and Caddo belong to this pattern. Spanish motion verbs are perfect
examples of this type:
(25)
Spanish expressions of Motion with conflation of Path taken from Talmy
(2000: 49-51)
Non-agentive
a.
La botella entró a la cueva (flotando)
The bottle MOVED-in to the cave (floating)
‘The bottle floated into the cave’
b.
La botella salió de la cueva (flotando)
The bottle MOVED-out from the cave (floating)
‘The bottle floated out of the cave’
Agentive
31
c.
Metí el barril a la bodega rodándolo
I-AMOVED-in the keg to the storeroom rolling-it
‘I rolled the keg into the storeroom’
d.
Saqué el corcho de la botella retorciéndolo
I-AMOVED-out the cork from the bottle twisting-it
‘I twisted the cork out of the bottle’
The reader should note that Spanish motion verbs are glossed as MOVED-in/out (for
non-agentive motion) and
AMOVED-in/out
(for agentive motion), to show the
conflation of Motion and Path.
As the examples (a-d) illustrate, if the Co-event (either Manner or Cause) is
expressed in Spanish, it tends to be in an independent element, usually an adverbial
or gerundive. In many languages, besides Spanish, the expression of Manner and/or
Cause by adverbials and gerundives is stylistically awkward. That is why
information about Manner or Cause is often omitted, especially when the Manner of
motion is a default or expected Manner of motion of the Figure, or it has been
previously established in the surrounding discourse.
In contrast, English verb roots readily conflate the Co-event but not Path.
This lexicalisation pattern is not characteristic, though English also has verbs that
incorporate Path, such as arrive, approach, circle, cross, descend, enter, exit, follow,
join, pass, rise, return, separate, etc., but most of them are historic borrowings from
Romance languages. Furthermore, Talmy (2000b: 62, 139) notes that this conflation
pattern, i.e., Motion + Path in verb roots, rarely extends to conflation of location with
site, such as ‘BE-on’, ‘BE-under’, etc, though in English, there are some incidental
cases of such conflation: surround (be around), top (be atop), flank (be beside),
adjoin (be next to), span (be from one side to the other), line (be in line) and fill.
2.2.3.3. Lexicalisation pattern: Motion + Figure
In the third typological pattern, the verb root conflates Motion and Figure.
Languages in this type are Navajo and Hokan languages (such as Atsugewi). English
does have a few forms that conform to this pattern:
32
(26)
English examples of conflation of Motion and Figure taken from Talmy
(2000b: 57)
Non-agentive
a.
It rained in through the bedroom window
Agentive
b.
I spat into the cuspidor
Talmy uses Atsugewi, a polysynthetic language of Northern California, as the
prototypical example of Figure-type languages. In Atsugewi, verb roots tend to
express movement of objects, body parts and garments: ‘Atsugewi has verb roots that
refer to a particular garment moved or located for wear that takes affixes indicating
whether the garment is on, or is put on or taken off oneself or someone else’ (Talmy,
2000b: 59).
(27)
Atwugewi verb roots of Motion with conflated Figure taken from Talmy
(2000b: 58)
a.
-lup- ‘for a small shiny spherical object (e.g., a round candy, an eyeball, a
hailstone) to move/be located
b.
-caq- ‘for a slimy lumpish object (e.g., a toad, a cow dropping) to move/be
located’
c.
-staq- ‘for a runny icky material (e.g., mud, manure, rotten tomatoes, guts,
chewed gum) to move/be-located
(28)
Atsugewi expressions of motion with conflated Figure (Talmy, 2000b: 59)
a.
/’-w-uh-staq-ik - a /
Locative suffix: -ik ‘on the ground’
Instrumental prefix: uh- ‘from gravity (an object’s own weight) acting on it’
Inflectional affix set: ’-w - -a ‘3rd person subject (factual mood)’
33
Literal: ‘Runny icky material is located on the ground from its own weight
acting on it’
Instantiated: ‘Guts are lying on the ground’
b.
/’-w-ca-staq-ict- a /
Directional suffix: -ict ‘into liquid’
Instrumental prefix: ca- ‘from the wind blowing on the figure’
Inflectional affix set: ’-w - -a ‘3rd person subject (factual mood)’
Literal: ‘Runny icky material moved into liquid from the wind blowing on it
Instantiated: ‘The guts blew into the creek’
c.
/s-’-w-cu-staq-cis- a /
Directional suffix: -cis ‘into fire’
Instrumental prefix: cu- ‘from a linear object, moving axially, acting on the
figure’
Inflectional affix set: s-’-w- -a ‘I subject,3rd person object (factual mood)’
Literal: ‘I caused it that runny icky material move into fire by acting on it
with a linear object moving axially’
Instantiated: ‘I prodded the guts into the fire with a stick’
Languages can sometimes conflate the same kind of semantic distinctions but
in very distinctive ways. For example, Southwest Pomo conflates Motion with
Figure, not as Atsugewi does, but rather with the numerosity of the Figure: ‘for
one/two or three/several together … to move’.
2.2.3.4. Other minor patterns
While these three conflation systems for Motion verbs are apparently the main ones
found across languages, Talmy (200b: 62) notes other lexicalisation patterns which
occur as well, in addition to some which do not. He observes some minor systems of
agentive verbs conflating two semantic components:
a.
Ground + Path + Motion, such as box and shelve in the following examples:
34
(29)
I boxed the apples = cause to move into a box
(30)
I shelved the book = cause to move onto a shelf
b.
Figure + Path + Motion, such as powder and scale in:
(31)
She powdered her nose = cause facial powder to move onto
(32)
I scaled the fish = cause the scale to move off of
These multi-component conflation patterns do not seem to form a language’s
characteristic lexicalisation pattern for expressing Motion. Such combinations would
require an enormous verb lexicon with fine-grained semantic combinations (Talmy,
200b: 62).
On the other hand, there are some conflations which are dispreferred. One
particular Motion-event component, the Ground, does not by itself conflate with the
Motion verb to form any language’s main system or pattern for expressing Motion.
Unlike other motion event components, it is not clear why the Ground component is
so disfavoured. Talmy (2000b: 61) considers that the explanation might be sought in
a concept of hierarchy:
[T]he different conflation types seem to be ranked in their prevalence among the world’s
languages, with conflation of Path as the most extensively represented, of Manner/Cause
next, and of Figure least so. It may therefore be the case that Ground conflation is also a
possibility, but one so unlikely that it has not yet been instantiated in any language.
Nonetheless, this does not really explain why the lexicalisation of Ground is
dispreferred by languages 11 . The prevalence of the three lexicalisation patterns
among the world’s languages may be interpreted as if languages are much more
concerned with expressing the trajectory of motion, the manner in which the Figure
moves and even the entity that moves than with conveying the reference entity. It
might be argued that Ground is the least prominent element of a motion scene, thus,
it is disfavoured in lexicalisation; however, we have not come across any
psycholinguistic research supporting this idea.
11
I am grateful to Michele Feist for pointing this out.
35
2.2.3.5. Split and parallel systems of conflation
Previously, it has been discussed that a language apparently has a characteristic
conflation type. However, a given language can characteristically (a) use a different
conflation system for different kinds of Motion, that is, a language may have a split
system of conflation, or (b) use different conflation types with the same type of
motion event, that is, a language may have a parallel system of conflation.
To illustrate split systems of conflation, Talmy focused on Spanish, Emai and
Tzeltal. As documented by Aske (1989) and Slobin & Hoiting (1994), Spanish uses
the pBath-conflating type for motion events whose paths are conceptualised as
crossing a boundary, and the manner-conflating type when there is no boundarycrossing involved 12 .
A different split pattern is found in Emai (a language spoken in Nigeria)
(Schaefer, 1988). Emai has a great number of path verbs but generally uses them
only for self-agentive motion. For non-agentive and agentive motion it uses verbs
conflating the Co-event.
Tzeltal exhibits another split system. In fact, it uses each of the three
lexicalisation types for separate types of motion events:
a.
Figure-conflating verbs when the Figure is or ends up supported at some
location. Tzeltal verb roots ‘largely distinguish Figure objects in terms of
their disposition: their form, orientation, and arrangement relative to other
objects’ (Talmy, 2000b: 65)
b.
Path-conflating verbs for autonomous motion of the Figure, that is, ‘(for a
Figure) to MOVE along X Path’ and for controlled agentive motion, that is,
‘(for an Agent) to MOVE (the Figure) along X Path while holding (it)’
(Talmy, 2000b: 65).
12
Slobin and Hoiting (1994) find that the boundary-crossing constraint (i.e., present in events in
which the Figure crosses a boundary, such as exit and enter) is at work in French, Japanese, Korean
and Turkish as well.
36
c.
Co-event-conflating verbs in constructions with the ‘directional’ form of the
Path verbs (which, according to Talmy (2000b: 65), function like Path
satellites).
Finally, for a parallel system of conflation, Talmy (2000b: 66) comments on
modern Greek, which uses the path- and the co-event conflating types to represent
most events of self-agentive motion ‘with comparable colloquiality’ :
(33)
Etreksa mesa (s-to spiti)
I-ran in (to-the house [ACC])
‘I ran in (-to the house)
(34)
bika (trekhondas) (s-to spiti)
I-entered (running) (to-the house [ACC])
‘I entered (the house) (running)’
2.2.4. The two-way typology: Path of motion
The two-way typology results from looking at the morphosyntactic constituents that
characteristically encode the Path component of a motion event. Thus, Path appears
in the verb root in verb-framed languages such as Spanish, in (34), and it is
lexicalised in the satellite in satellite-framed languages such as English in (35):
(35)
La botella salió de la cueva
The bottle MOVED-out from the cave
(36)
The bottle floated out of the cave
As a remainder, a satellite is ‘the grammatical category of any constituent that
is in a sister relation to the verb root’ (Talmy, 2000b: 102). Satellites, which can be
either bound affixes or free words, encompass English verb particles, German
separable and inseparable verb prefixes, Latin or Russian verb prefixes, Chinese verb
complements, Lahu nonhead ‘versatile verbs’, Caddo incorporated nouns, and
37
Atsugewi polysynthetic affixes around the verb root. Satellites 13 can encode not only
Path of motion (e.g., English out, into, away, etc) but also Path + Ground (e.g.,
Atsugewi –ict ‘into a liquid’), Manner (e.g., Nez Perce manner prefix wis- ‘traveling
with one’s belongings’) and Cause (e.g., Atsugewi Ca- ‘from the wind blowing on P
[Patient]’).
Slobin (2004) provides a detailed list of verb- and satellite-framed languages:
•
Satellite-framed languages:
o Germanic: Danish, Dutch, English, German, Icelandic, Swedish, Yiddish
o Slavic: Czech, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Ukrainian
o Finno-Ugric: Finnish, Hungarian
o Chinese: Mandarin
o Australian: Warlpiri
•
Verb-framed languages:
o Romance: Catalan, French, Galician, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
o Semitic: Moroccan Arabic, Hebrew
o Turkic: Turkish
o Basque
o Japanese
o Korean
o Sign Languages: American Sign Language, Sign Language of the
Netherlands
Talmy (1991, 2000b: Sections 2.5-2.8) suggests that the constituent where
Path is characteristically expressed is to a great extent where aspect, change of state,
action correlation, and realisation are characteristically encoded as well. In other
words, the binary typology for motion events extends to at least other four types of
events. Thus, verb-framed languages characteristically lexicalise the trajectory of
motion, aspect, change of state, action correlation and realisation in the main verb,
13
See (Talmy, 2000b: Chapter 1, Section 3) for an in depth presentation of the grammatical category
satellite and the sort of semantic notions it can lexicalise.
38
whereas it is expressed by verb particles or satellites in satellite-framed languages.
Let us illustrate with a few examples of English and Spanish taken from Talmy
(2000b):
(37)
Change of state
a.
I blew out the candle
b.
Apagué la vela de un soplido/ soplándola
c.
I burned him to death
d.
Lo maté con fuego/ quemándolo
(38)
Action correlation
a.
I played the melody along with him
b.
Yo lo acompañé tocando la melodía
c.
I outplayed him
d.
Yo lo superé tocando la melodía
In all of these examples, changes of state as well as action correlation are expressed
in English with the particle or satellite, while the main verb encodes the Co-event
(Manner or Cause). In contrast, in Spanish the main verb expresses the transition to a
new state in (37), and coactivity in (38), while the adjunct, either a prepositional
phrase (de un soplido, con fuego) or a gerund (soplándola, quemándolo, tocando),
expresses the Co-event.
2.2.5. Typological shifts
The shift of a language from one preferred lexicalisation pattern to another, or its
maintenance through the course of time is still an unexplored research area. The
factors that may have tilted one language towards maintaining its typological pattern
category and another language toward shifting to another must yet be discerned.
In a speculative fashion, Talmy (2000b: 118-119) comments that Latin,
classical Greek, and Proto-Germanic all exhibited the presumably Indo-European
pattern of using co-event-conflating verb roots together with path satellites that
formed prefixes on the verb roots. Possibly because of phonological changes that
39
made the path prefixes less distinct from each other and from the verb roots, all three
languages apparently became unable to maintain their inherited pattern. Both
Germanic and Greek 14 proceeded to develop a new set of path satellites that largely
supplanted the prior set. This permitted the maintenance of the inherited pattern for
representing motion events with co-event verb conflation. On the other hand, the
languages arising from Latin developed a new system of path-conflating verbs, rather
than re-establishing the path satellite system. In this process, Talmy (2000b: 119)
remarks that each of the daughter languages formed its set of path verbs in its own
way by variously coining new verbs or shifting the semantics of inherited verbs so as
to fill out the basic directional grid of the new path verb system. For example, the
Latin verb salio (‘jump’) which combined with path prefixes such as up and out
developed into Italian salire (‘ascend’) and Spanish salir (‘go out’) (cf. Wälchli,
ms.). At the same time, these languages may have undergone the complementary
change of advancing their gerundive construction for the expression of Manner and
Cause.
Drawing on diachronic data, Anetta Kopecka (2004, 2006a, in press) deals
with French’s typological shift from a satellite-framed pattern to a verb-framed
pattern. She provides diachronic evidence of this shift and concludes this shift can be
mainly attributed to the weakening of productivity of verbal prefixes 15 . Although Old
French prefixes lost their productivity, many remnants are found in modern French.
On one hand, there are verbs with quite transparent prefixes, such as s’en-voler ‘fly
away’ and sur-voler ‘fly over’ which conform to the satellite-framed pattern. On the
other hand, there are more opaque verbs, whose composite nature is no longer
discernable, such as arriver ‘arrive’ and éloigner ‘move away’, which is consistent
with the verb-framed pattern.
14
Note that modern Greek is categorised as a verb-framed language by Papafragou et al. (2002, 2006).
15
Other closely related factors contributed to this typological shift as well, namely, the loss of
prefixed verbs and the substitution of prefixed verbs by other lexical items.
40
2.3. Typology revisited
2.3.1. Introduction
The typology of verb- and satellite-framed languages has engendered a good deal of
research on motion event descriptions in a vast number of languages. On the basis of
those numerous studies, this typology called for a reformulation. According to
Ameka & Essegbey (in press), Slobin (2004) and Zlatev & Yangklang (2004),
among other authors, there are some languages – as we will see in the following
section – which do not seem to fit nicely into Talmy’s two-way typology, as these
languages encode both Manner and Path in morphosyntactic constituents of equal
status. In the attempt to account for such linguistic diversity, the category of
equipollently-framed languages, i.e., languages in which both Manner and Path are
expressed by equivalent grammatical forms, has been proposed by Slobin (2004).
Moreover, Talmy’s theory of lexicalisation patterns does not seem to take
into account the fact that languages within the same typological group show a
differing degree of manner and path elaborations. For example, Spanish and Basque
are both verb-framed languages but their elaborations of Manner and Path are quite
different, as has been shown by Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2004a, 2004b, 2004c, 2006a,
2006b). Basque describes Manner much more often than Spanish thanks to its sound
symbolic expressions or movement imitatives, and thus Basque is closer to satelliteframed languages. On the other hand, in terms of Path, Basque generally offers more
detailed paths or trajectories than Spanish. As a solution, it has been proposed that
ranking languages on clines or continuums of manner (Slobin, 2004, 2006a, 2006b)
and path salience (Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 2004a, 2004c, 2004d, 2008) would be more
useful than placing them into typological categories. Slobin (2004, 2006a) and
Ibarretxe-Antuñano (e.g., 2004a, 2008) identify a number of factors which contribute
to a language’s degree of path and manner salience respectively. Sections 2.3.3 and
2.3.4 will deal with this last proposal of clines of semantic component saliency.
41
2.3.1. Equipollently-framed languages
Slobin (2004: 249) proposed a tripartite typology of motion-event constructions:
verb-framed, satellite-framed and equipollently-framed languages. Equipollentlyframed languages are those languages in which both Path and Manner have roughly
equal morphosyntactic status; in other words, Path and Manner are expressed by
equivalent grammatical forms. There are at least three subtypes of equipollentlyframed languages according to Slobin (2006a: 64):
(1) Serial-verb languages. In serial-verb languages it is not always evident which
verb in a series, if any, is the main verb. The Niger-Congo, Hmong-Mien, SinoTibetan, Tai-Kadai, and Mon-Khmer families and some Austronesian languages
belong to this group.
(2) Bipartite verb languages: the Hokan and Penutian languages described by
Delancey (1989, 1996) are languages in which the verb consists of two morphemes
of equal status, one expressing Manner and the other Path. Talmy (2000b: 113),
drawing from Aoki (1970), provides a similar description of Nez Perce manner
prefixes, such as quqú. – láhsa ‘gallop-ascend’. Richard Rhodes (in a personal
communication to Slobin in 2003) reports that such constructions are typical of
Algonquian, Athabaskan, Hokan, and Klamath-Takelman. Huang & Tanangkingsing
(2004) report that at least one Austronesian language, Tsou, has apparently
developed bipartite manner-path verbs from serial-verb constructions.
(3) Generic verb languages: the Australian language Jaminjung (Schultze-Berndt,
2000) has a very small verb lexicon of about 24 function verbs. For encoding motion
events, one of five verbs is used, expressing a deictic or aspectual function: go, come,
fall, hit, do. These verbs are combined with satellite-like elements or coverbs, which
encode both Path and Manner in the same fashion. Once more, neither path nor
manner is unequivocally the main element in a clause.
In response to Slobin’s proposal of a third group of languages, Talmy (in
Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 2005: 331) agrees that the equipollently-framed category is a
42
good way to view such linguistic variation, but he strongly argues that the criteria
used for judging main verb status in those languages have been too few, and that
authors need to apply an expanded set of criteria to elucidate which constituent is
privileged with main verb status. These criteria or factors range from phonological to
morphosyntactic to semantic factors.
2.3.3. Cline of Manner salience
Besides allocating languages into three typological categories, Slobin (2004, 2006a,
2006b) argues for a cline or continuum of manner salience. Independently from the
lexicalisation pattern they belong to, languages differ significantly in the amount of
manner information that is given, the frequency of mention of manner details, and
the sort of fine grained manner distinctions that they encode. Thus, there are highmanner-salient languages and low-manner-salient languages. In Slobin’s (2004: 250)
own words:
In High-manner-salient languages, speakers regularly and easily provide information about
manner when describing motion events, whereas in Low-manner-salient languages manner
information is only provided when manner is foregrounded for some reason.
Furthermore, Slobin points out that high-manner-salient languages possess a rich
expressive lexicon of manner verbs encoding fine-grained distinctions, and that their
speakers are thought to pay attention to Manner. In contrast, low-manner-salient
languages have a less extensive verb lexicon expressing Manner, and are thought to
attend less to the Manner component of motion.
Slobin has observed that there are a number of factors that interact with
lexicalisation patterns in influencing manner salience: lexical and morphemic
availability, semantic constraints and processing load. One of the factors which plays
a role in the amount of manner information given by a language is lexical and
morphemic availability. The more accessible and codable the semantic component of
Manner is in a language, the more manner information this language is likely to
express. According to Slobin (2004), Manner of motion is more codable in a
language when it is expressed (1) by a finite rather than non-finite verb, (2) by a
single word rather than a phrase or clause, and (3) by a high frequency rather than
43
low frequency lexical item. In high-manner-salient languages, there is an accessible
slot for manner made available in a number of ways:
a.
as main verb in satellite-framed languages
b.
as manner verb in serial-verb languages
c.
as manner morpheme in bipartite verbs
d.
as manner preverb in Jaminjungan languages
e.
as ideophones or expressive forms (e.g., Basque (e.g., Ibarretxe-Antuñano,
2006a), Japanese (e.g., Kita, 1997; Ohara, 1995, 2003; Sugiyama, 2000,
2005).
Apart from lexical availability and codability of manner, it is important to
explore other factors, such as semantic constraints and processing load, which greatly
influence the expression of manner of motion across languages. Lexical availability
and ease of codability are not sufficient to understand why some languages
possessing the means to express manner of motion fail to do so. One answer lies in
what Slobin & Hoiting (1994) have called the boundary-crossing constraint, drawn
from Aske’s (1989) observations on the role of telicity in the expression of motion. It
seems that verb-framed languages (such as Spanish) only license the use of manner
verbs when the motion event depicted is atelic, that is, when the event is a motion
activity with duration and no boundary-crossing is predicated. Consider the
following example taken from Aske (1989: 3):
(39)
Juan bailó en círculos/de un lado para otro/hacia la puerta/hasta la puerta
John danced in circles/from one place to another/towards the door/to the door
For telic events where the end location of the Figure is stated, verb-frames
languages cannot use a manner verb, as in (40), but necessarily mark this change of
location with a path verb (entrar ‘enter’, salir ‘exit’, cruzar ‘cross’, etc) or neutral
verb (ir ‘go’, venir ‘come’, etc). In order to add Manner some sort of subordinate
construction is required (gerundive forms, prepositional phrases, etc) as in (41).
(40)
? Nadaron adentro de la cueva
44
They-swam to-inside of the cave
(41)
Entraron a la cueva nadando
They-enter to the cave swimming
A further specification on the semantic constraints in the Spanish use of
manner verbs is made by Naigles et al (1998). In their study, they found that Spanish
speakers predominantly used path verbs for boundary-crossing events when the
boundary traversed was horizontal. In contrast, for punctual vertical boundary
crossing situations (e.g., tirarse a la piscina ‘throw oneself/plunge into the pool’),
Spanish licenses the use of manner verbs. It appears that a sudden boundary crossing
allows the use of manner verbs in Spanish and maybe in other verb-framed
languages.
Besides semantic constraints, another factor which comes into play in the
low-manner salience in verb-framed languages is processing effort. Although verbframed languages have the option of using adjuncts or subordinate constructions to
express Manner of motion, this alternative is avoided most of the time. As Slobin
(2006: 67) points out, the explanation for this general avoidance of Manner in verbframed languages may be sought in the unnecessary foregrounding of Manner, which
results in heavy processing of these constructions in terms of speaker’s production
and hearer’s comprehension. When Manner of motion is expressed outside the verb
root, it ‘emerges into the foreground of attention’. In contrast, when expressed in the
verb root, it ‘forms part of the semantic background where it attracts little direct
attention’ (Talmy, 2000b: 128). According to Talmy, a semantic concept which is
backgrounded is more readily expressed in a language, and ‘its informational content
can be included in a sentence with apparently low cognitive costs – specifically,
without much additional speaker effort or hearer attention’ (Talmy, 2000b: 129).
Thus, in verb-framed languages, the expression of Manner outside the verb root is
often neglected as it would direct one’s attention to it causing an extra processing
load.
In sum, languages differ considerably in the amount of manner information
they express, even languages within the same typological group. The main factor is
the preferred lexicalisation pattern (verb-, satellite-, or equipollently-framed
45
languages) though other factors come into play interacting with it and influencing the
degree of manner salience in a given language.
2.3.4. Cline of Path salience
In line with Slobin’s cline of Manner salience, Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2004a, 2004c,
2008) proposes a cline of Path salience. Languages vary in the degree of detailed
description of Path of motion independently from the lexicalisation pattern they
belong to. Her proposal classifies languages along a continuum between two ends:
high-path-salient languages and low-path-salient languages. The former offer
detailed and frequent descriptions of Path, whereas the latter, coarse descriptions
usually limited to the use of path verbs with or without a Ground.
Although Path is an obligatory constituent of a motion event, languages differ
in the degree to which they present Path and Grounds as well as complex trajectories.
For example, Spanish favours the use of path verbs with no Ground over path verbs
with explicit mention of the Ground, whereas Basque seems to favour the opposite.
Moreover, when those two languages describe complex paths, Basque generally
expresses complex paths with more than two Grounds, whereas Spanish typically
uses one.
As we discussed in the previous section with respect to the expression of
Manner, apart from typological factors, other factors have an effect on the
elaboration of a semantic component. At this point, it is necessary to investigate what
makes path of motion salient in a language. Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2004c, 2008) argues
that some factors such as space and motion lexicon, word order, verb omission,
dummy verbs, language orality and culture contribute to the degree of path and
ground elaboration.
Regarding the first factor, the available linguistic devices for space and
motion, high-path-salient languages often have rich lexical and morphological
resources such as locational cases, locative nouns, sets of directionals, etc.
The factor of word order is related to the observation that languages whose
verbs are in final positions tend to express details about Path and Ground before the
verb. Thus, these complements have already provided all the information for path of
46
motion. This factor is crucial for languages such as Basque, Chantyal, Japanese and
Turkish (Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 2008).
The third factor has to do with verb omissions. High-path-salient languages
seem to be more likely to allow verb omissions than low-path-salient languages. The
former readily omit the verb as the path complements present in the utterance are
explicit enough, whereas the latter cannot omit the verb as it is one that conveys the
necessary information for the description of the motion event.
The fourth factor is related to the existence of dummy verbs (i.e., verbs whose
semantic content is poor) in high-path-salient languages. These verbs are
accompanied by path complements for describing motion events. A typical example
is the verb ‘to be’, such as in Swiss German and in Basque.
The fifth factor has to do with the concept of language orality (Mündlichkeit).
Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2008) states that Koch & Oesterreicher (1985) and
Oesterreicher (2001) consider that irrespective the mode of expression (written, oral)
languages can be classified as conceptually written and conceptually oral.
Conceptually oral languages are languages characterised by redundancy, elliptic
constructions, hyperbolic expressions, self-corrections, etc. Ibarretxe-Antuñano
(2008) notes that conceptually oral languages, such as Basque and Swiss dialect
Muotathal, are more likely to be high-path-salient than conceptually written
languages.
Last but not least, according to Ibarretxe Antuñano (2008), cultural factors
have a say in Path salience. Wilkins (2004) and Bavin (2004) argue that aboriginal
communities show a great concern for detailed attention to motion paths and for
orientation in space. As a consequence, their linguistic descriptions reflect this
concern.
2.4. The Linguistic-Relativity Hypothesis
2.4.1. Introduction
The question ‘what is the relation between talking about reality and thinking about
it?’, in other words, ‘what is the relation between language and thought?’ has
troubled many linguists and psychologists for many decades. Two general
47
approaches can be identified in the literature concerning the nature of the relation
between language and conceptualisation: the Universalist/Nativist approach and the
Linguistic Determinism/Relativity approach.
Before focussing on the Linguistic Relativity approach, which is the one that
concerns us here, a brief presentation of the Universalist/Nativist approach is
required. The Universalist or Nativist approach emphasizes cross-linguistic
similarities due to our shared human nature. Noam Chomsky is the main figure of
this universalist approach to language and reality. His reason to study language is:
Language is a mirror of mind in a deep and significant sense. It is a product of human
intelligence…By studying the properties of natural languages, their structure, organization,
and use, we may hope to learn something about human nature; something significant, if it is
true that human cognitive capacity is the truly distinctive and most remarkable characteristic
of the species. (Chomsky, 1975: 4)
Some basic tenets of this approach are (a) conceptual structures are universal, (b)
syntax is also universal and innate, and (c) cross-linguistic variability does not reflect
conceptual but merely linguistic differences. According to universalists, speaking a
language consists of translating the language of thought (Fodor, 1975, 1983). As Li
& Gleitman (2002: 266) put it ‘humans invent words that label their concepts’;
linguistic categories are a straightforward mapping from universal concepts.
Universalists acknowledge that languages vary in the way they express reality, but
claim that this cross-linguistic variability does not reflect any substantive differences
in the way humans think about reality.
Conversely, cognitive linguistics/semantics adopts a different position. As we
have already noted, one of the basic tenets of cognitive linguistics/semantics is that
language is a window into conceptual structure. From there the claim follows that
cross-linguistic variability reflects differences in conceptualisation. This is exactly
the
diverging
point
between
universal
approaches
and
the
Linguistic
Determinism/Relativity approach, with which cognitive linguistics is consonant and
which we will present in the following section. However, there is also room for
some sort of universalism in cognitive linguistics/semantics. Divergences in
conceptualisation are ‘thought to emerge from common conceptualising capacity,
which derives from shared aspects of human cognition’ (Evans & Green, 2006: 56).
48
In sum, the stance in cognitive linguistics/semantics on the relation between
language and cognition is that in spite of the commonalities in the ways humans
experience the world and in the ways humans think, different languages can give rise
to distinct conceptual systems.
2.4.2. Sapir and Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
Every student of language or society should be familiar with the essential idea of linguistic
relativity, the idea that culture, through language, affects the way we think, especially
perhaps our classification of the experienced world.
(Gumperz & Levinson, 1996: 2)
Linguistic Determinism/Relativism is associated with the American scholars Edward
Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf. They investigated the languages and cultural
practices of several native American tribes in the first half of the 20th century. On
the basis of his research, Sapir asserts:
Human beings do not live in the objective world alone […] The fact of the matter is that the
“real world” is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group
[…] We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language
habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation. (Sapir, 1929: 209)
Along the same lines, Whorf claims:
We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native language. The categories and types
that we isolate from the world of phenomena we do not find there because they stare every
observer in the face; on the contrary, the world is presented in a kaleidoscope flux of
impressions which has to be organized by our minds—and this means largely by the
linguistic systems of our minds. (Whorf, 1956: 213)
Their view is that languages have the power to create distinctive worldviews out of
the same reality. This implies, therefore, that speakers of specific languages differ in
the way they think and act. Despite much academic confusion in interpreting Sapir
and Whorf as pointed out by Gumperz & Levinson (1996: 2, 22) and Pourcel (2005:
13-14), they did not claim that thought is completely determined by language. Their
49
position seems to have been that language (as a structured semantic system)
influences habitual thought.
Sapir and Whorf were not the first to express the idea that language
influenced thought, i.e., our understanding and perception of reality. In the 19th
century, Wilhelm von Humboldt ([1836] 1988: 54) viewed language as the formative
organ of thought. He held that thought is externalised in speech, and that ‘[t]hought
and language are therefore one and inseparable from each other’. To his mind, every
language has a characteristic Weltanschauung or world-view; language steps in
between man and the world as language presents the world to man. Later on, the
anthropologist Franz Boas, who took a less deterministic approach to linguistic
diversity, observed that language ‘determines those aspects of each experience that
must be expressed’ (1938: 127).
On the whole, according to Gentner & Goldin-Meadow (2003: 4), what has
been coined as The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that (a) languages vary in how they
carve up the world; (b) the structure of one’s language influences how one perceives
and understands the world; (c) therefore, speakers of different languages will
perceive/conceptualise the world differently.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 16 is generally considered as consisting of two
versions: the strong version known as linguistic determinism and the weak version
named linguistic relativity. Linguistic determinism defends the ideas that language
entirely determines thought, our conceptualisation of reality, and that thinking would
be impossible without language. To put it simply, according to this view, if a given
language X does not have a linguistic category, speakers of language X cannot think
about it. Thus, speakers of language X understand the world in a different way from
speakers of language Y. Linguistic relativity claims language influences thought but
not in such a deterministic way. According to this weak version, language plays a
16
See Pourcel (2005: Chapter 1) for a comprehensive and extensive discussion on Linguistic
Relativity. In this chapter, she criticises the misunderstanding in the academic world of Sapir and
Whorf’s views. On the one hand, she remarks that these scholars did not claim that language entirely
determines thought, though they appreciate its psychological scope. On the other hand, she observed
that the principle of linguistic relativity is no longer considered an aim of anthropological linguistics;
instead, there has been a shift from linguistic relativity as a research tradition to linguistic relativity as
a questionable hypothesis.
50
part in non-linguistic cognition, for example, in how speakers remember, categorise,
and reason about the world, but it does not rule out other alternatives.
The strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis was rejected by most
linguists on the basis of negative evidence from the domain of colour (Heider &
Olivier, 1972; Rosch, 1975, 1978), which showed that linguistic differences in
labeling colours between English and Dani did not reflect any differences in the way
speakers of both languages categorise and remember colours. In other words,
language does not seem to determine thought.
After decades of neglect due to the dominance of universalist approaches to
language (i.e., formal linguistics such as Generative Grammar) and of scepticism due
to negative findings from research on colour, the language and thought question has
again become an active research arena. According to Gentner & Goldin-Meadow
(2003), work by Talmy (e.g., 2000a, 2000b), Langacker (e.g., 1987, 1999), Choi &
Bowerman (e.g., Bowerman & Choi, 2001, 2003; Choi & Bowerman, 1991; Choi et
al, 1999), and Levinson (e.g., Levinson, 1997; Levinson et al. 2002), among others,
contributed to the renewed interest in linguistic relativity. These scholars analysed
the semantic systems of different languages and demonstrated convincingly that
important differences exist in how languages carve up the world. As evidence of this
renewed interest, two volumes on the issue of Linguistic Relativity have been
published: Gumperz & Levinson’s Rethinking Linguistic Relativity (1996), and
Gentner & Goldin-Meadow’s Language in Mind: Advances in the Study of Language
and Thought (2003), which cover a wide range of topics (space, gender, motion,
objects vs. substances, etc).
Studies on linguistic relativity often adopt a domain-centred and comparative
approach (cf. Lucy, 1992, 1997). This approach is the most efficient approach as
contrasts among languages shed light on similarities and differences in a specific
domain. When investigating linguistic relativity it is a prerequisite to identify an area
of linguistic divergence which could lead to potential cognitive implications for their
respective speakers in non-linguistic tasks (Pourcel, 2002: 126).
A prolific arena for research on linguistic relativity is space. For example,
Levinson (1997) and Pederson et al. (1998) showed that speakers’ linguistic frames
of reference influenced their distinct behaviour in non-linguistic tasks (e.g., ‘turning
51
the table’ task). We postpone an overview of literature on motion exploring linguistic
relativity to Chapter 3. In addition to space, linguistic relativity research on
grammatical categories, such as number or gender, has been carried out. Lucy (1992)
and Lucy & Gaskins (2003), considered the differences in the pluralization systems
of Yucatec Maya and English, show that those differences have an impact on the way
speakers of those languages behave in non-linguistic tasks. Boroditsky et al. (2003)
suggests grammatical gender has pervasive effects on how people think about
objects.
Overall, this research falls within the idea of language as lens, i.e., language
influences how we see the world. According to Gentner & Goldin-Meadow (2003),
language may be also seen as tool kit and as category maker. As such, language can
be a strong force in facilitating representation and reasoning (e.g., Loewenstein &
Gentner, 2005), and in the development of particular concepts (e.g., Choi &
Bowerman, 1991; Bowerman & Choi, 2001, 2003; Casasola, 2005; Casasola et al.,
2006). Under the theme language as tool kit, Loewenstein & Gentner (2005) suggest
that the use of relational spatial language is instrumental for relational thought; when
young children heard relational spatial language, their performance in a mapping task
was enormously facilitated. Further research on language acquisition demonstrates
the influence of language in the development of relational concepts or categories
(i.e., language as category maker). Choi & Bowerman (1991) and Bowerman &
Choi (2001, 2003) found that language-specific differences among the categories of
containment and support in English versus tight and loose fit in Korean were in place
as early as 17-20 months. Children construct spatial categories that tightly fit the
adult system. Casasola (2005) and Casasola et al. (2006) also provided evidence in
favour of the idea that language facilitates infants’ formation of abstract spatial
categories. In sum, current research suggests that language influences thought under
specific circumstances.
52
2.4.3. Slobin’s Thinking for Speaking
[R]esearch on linguistic relativity is incomplete without attention to the cognitive processes
that are brought to bear, online, in the course of using language.
(Slobin, 2003: 158)
There is a special kind of thinking that is intimately tied to language – namely, the thinking
that is carried out, on-line, in the process of speaking.
(Slobin, 1991: 75)
In 1991 the Wenner-Gren Foundation Symposium on the topic of rethinking
linguistic relativity took place. One important outcome was Slobin’s Thinking for
Speaking: language influences thought when one is thinking with the purpose to use
language. Despite the fact that Slobin was the first to develop an account of thinkingfor-speaking, delineating its implications and making it palatable for empirical
testing, similar observations had been voiced before by Pinker and by
anthropologists:
Whorf was surely wrong when he said that one’s language determines how one
conceptualises reality in general. But he was probably correct in a much weaker sense: one’s
language does determine how one must conceptualise reality when one has to talk about it.
(Pinker, 1989: 360)
Slobin (1991: 71) remarks that he is following a tradition in anthropological
linguistics exemplified by the thinking of Franz Boas. As aforementioned, Boas
observed that language plays a role in what aspects of reality must be expressed:
[I]n each language only a part of the complete concept that we have in mind is expressed,
and […] each language has a peculiar tendency to select this or that aspect of the mental
image which is conveyed by the expression of the thought. (Boas, [1911] 1966: 38-39)
Boas was probably wrong in supposing that all speakers have a common complete
concept in their minds. However, he was right in suggesting that language selects
what to communicate. In Slobin’s (1991: 76) own formulation, ‘the expression of
experience in linguistic terms constitutes thinking for speaking – a special form of
53
thought that is mobilized for communication’. He argues that whatever effects
language might have outside the act of speaking, the mental processes going on
while formulating and interpreting utterances are not trivial and deserve special
attention:
In the evanescent time frame of constructing utterances in discourse one fits one’s thoughts
into available linguistics frames. “Thinking for speaking” involves picking those
characteristics of objects and events that (a) fit some conceptualization of the event, and (b)
are readily encodable in the language. (Slobin, 1991: 76)
In the on-line process of thinking for speaking, speakers of a given language attend
to the specific aspects of reality which are to be verbalised in language. In other
words, language directs one’s attention to particular aspects of experience.
Slobin (2003: 160) extends the label ‘thinking for speaking’ to all forms of
linguistic production (speaking, writing, signing) and reception (listening, reading,
viewing) as well as a range of mental processes (understanding, imaging,
remembering) in the attempt to account for the far-reaching effects language use has
on mental processes tied to language. To his mind, research concerned with thinkingfor-speaking should have the following characteristics (Slobin, 2003: 161):
a. The research addresses a selection of languages and a semantic domain that is
encoded with some frequency in all of the languages.
b. The semantic domain is encoded by special grammatical constructions or
obligatory lexical selections in at least some of the languages under comparison.
c. The domain is relatively more codable in some of the languages to be compared.
d. The research addresses a selection of discourse situations in which the semantic
domain is regularly accessed.
Slobin’s research on thinking-for-speaking mainly concentrates on motion.
The semantic domain of motion is important for all languages (a), and as we have
seen in Section 2.2, it exhibits distinct lexicalisation patterns across languages (b).
Furthermore, some dimensions of motion, such as manner of motion, are more
codable in some languages than in others (c). And, finally, there are plenty of both
54
written and oral discourse situations in which this domain can be examined (d). Thus,
the domain of motion is suitable for exploring how language-specific semantic
patterns influence the way speakers of a language talk about motion. The next
chapter will provide an in depth summary of thinking-for-speaking research on
motion.
55
CHAPTER 3
BEYOND LINGUISTIC TYPOLOGIES: CROSSLINGUISTIC
STUDIES ON MOTION EVENTS
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Thinking-for-speaking research
3.2.1. Introduction
3.2.2. Narrative style
3.2.3. Translation
3.2.4. Sign languages and co-speech gestures
3.2.4.1. Sign languages
3.2.4.2. Co-speech gestures
3.2.5. Language acquisition
3.2.6. Language processing
3.2.7. Extension to the domain of vision
3.3. Linguistic relativity research
3.3.1. Introduction
3.3.2. Positive evidence
3.3.3. Conflicting evidence
3.3.4. The role of telicity, type of Manner and type of Figure
3.4. Summary
CHAPTER 3. BEYOND LINGUISTIC TYPOLOGIES: CROSSLINGUISTIC STUDIES ON MOTION EVENTS
3.1. Introduction
The domain of motion has received a good deal of research attention since Talmy’s
seminal work (e.g., 1985, 1991, 2000a, 2000b). This chapter provides a review of the
whole gamut of research inspired or influenced by the Talmian theory of
lexicalisation patterns for motion events. Such research could be divided into two
parts: Slobin’s thinking-for-speaking research (section 3.2) and linguistic relativity
research (section 3.3).
Thinking-for-speaking research attempts to account for the far-reaching
effects that language use has on mental processes tied to language. Sections 3.2.2 and
3.2.3 review the vast amount of research on the bearing that lexicalisation patterns
have on the narrative styles of a large number of languages, as well as on the process
of translating between typologically distinct languages. Next, sections 3.2.4 and 3.2.5
summarise research on both sign languages and gestures accompanying motion event
descriptions. Such research also falls within the purview of thinking-for-speaking,
namely thinking-for-signing/gesturing. In section 3.2.6 first language acquisition
research is reviewed. This line of research addresses whether children are or are not
influenced very early by their language-specific lexicalisation patterns, and the
nature of the potential effect. After that, section 3.2.7 presents several experimental
studies concerned with language-specific semantic biases in adults’ language
processing. Lastly, preliminary investigations into the relations between motion and
vision are presented in section 3.2.8; it seems that habitual ways of speaking about
motion also affect how we talk about vision.
Finally, in section 3.3, research on the everlasting question on the relation
between language and cognition is assessed. Linguistic relativity research draws
heavily on the crosslinguistic differences in the encoding of motion and asks whether
these differences result in divergent conceptualisations of motion events by speakers
of verb- and satellite-framed languages.
57
3.2. Thinking-for-speaking research
3.2.1. Introduction
To investigate thinking-for-speaking, Slobin concentrates on the domain of motion.
His approach is comparative, initially investigating English and Spanish (e.g., Slobin,
1996a, 2000), but later broadening the scope to include other languages (e.g., Slobin,
2003, 2006).
As mentioned previously, Slobin (2003: 160) extends thinking-for-speaking
to all forms of linguistic production (speaking, writing, translating, signing) and
reception (listening, reading, viewing) as well as a range of mental processes
(understanding, imaging, remembering) in the attempt to account for the far-reaching
effects that language use has on mental processes tied to language. Throughout his
work, he argues that serious study of language in use points to pervasive effects of
language on selective attention for particular motion event characteristics. Path is the
core of the motion event and, as such, it is always encoded in motion event
descriptions, though by different linguistic elements (e.g., Talmy, 2000b). However,
Manner of motion is an external component, optional in verb-framed languages but
readily encoded in satellite-framed languages. This fact suggests that speakers of
satellite-framed languages may pay more attention to Manner of motion than
speakers of verb-framed languages. In brief, Slobin’s proposal is that ‘habitual,
online attention to Manner has made it especially salient in S-language speaker’s
conceptualizations of motion events’ (2003: 164). Thus, he hypothesises a number of
cognitive consequences of this differential encoding of Manner of motion.
If a language provides fine-grained, habitual and economical expression of manner of
motion:
(1) References to manner of motion will occur frequently, across genres and
discourse contexts.
(2) Manner-of-motion verbs will be acquired early.
(3) The language will have continuing lexical innovation in this domain,
including extended and metaphorical uses.
(4) Speakers will have rich mental imagery of manner of motion.
58
(5) Manner of motion will be salient in memory for events and in verbal
accounts of events. (Slobin, 2003: 163-164)
Although these five consequences are called cognitive, it should be noted that the
first three consequences refer to linguistic cognition, whereas the last two are
cognitive hypotheses about speakers’ conceptualisations of motion (i.e., nonlinguistic cognition). Our review of thinking-for-speaking research in the following
sections will thus focus on the first three, leaving the final two for Section 3.3.
3.2.2. Narrative style
A great bulk of research on motion events across a wide range of languages comes
from elicited spoken narratives using a wordless picture book, Frog, Where are you?
(Mayer, 1969). The book is about a boy who goes in search of his runaway frog. The
book depicts several motion scenes, involving multiple types of Figures (humans and
animals), Paths, and Manners of motion.
Native speakers of a large number of languages have been asked to orally
describe what is happening in each of the pictorial scenes. In the majority of the
cases, participants have been both adults and children. The main outcomes of this
research have been two volumes under the same generic title Relating Events in
Narrative: the first volume edited by Berman & Slobin 1 (1994) and the second by
Strömqvist & Verhoeven 2 (2004).
1
Berman & Slobin’s Relating events in narrative: A crosslinguistic developmental study is the result
of collaborations with Ayhan A. Aksu-Koç, Michael Bamberg, Lisa Dasinger, Virginia Marchman,
Yonni Neeman, Philip Rodkin, Eugenia Sebastián, Cecile Toupin, Tom Trabasso and Christiane von
Stutterheim. Their original interest was in language development, though they also gathered adults’
elicited narratives.
2
Strömqvist & Verhoeven’s Relating events in narrative: Typological and contextual perspectives
examines American Sign Language (Galvan & Taub) and 13 spoken languages: Arrernte (Davis P.
Wilkins), Greenlandic (Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen and Frederikke Blytman Trondhjem), English,
Spanish and Hebrew (Slobin and Judy Kupersmitt), Japanese (Aylin C. Küntay and Keiko Nakamura),
Swedish and Icelandic (Hrafnhildur Ragnarsdottir and Sven Strömqvist), Thai (Jordan Zlatev and
Peerapat Yangklang), Turkish (Ayhan Aksu-Koc and Göklem Tekdemir), Tzeltal (Penelope Brown)
Basque (Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano), and Warlpiri (Edith L. Bavin).
59
In the first volume of the frog story studies, Berman & Slobin (1994: 198199) summed up the typological contrasts found between the narratives of three
verb-framed languages (Hebrew, Turkish and Spanish) and two satellite-framed
languages (English and German):
Satellite-framed languages allow for detailed description of paths within a clause, because
syntax makes it possible to accumulate path satellites to a single verb, along with
prepositional phrases that add further specifications (e.g., the deer threw them off over the
cliff into the water) […] The satellite-framed languages in our sample also tend towards
greater specification of manner, probably because the lexicon provides a large collection of
verbs that conflate manner with change of location (crawl, swoop, tumble, etc), often
conflating cause as well (dump, hurl, shove, etc.). In verb-framed languages, such
elaboration is more of a “luxury,” since path and manner are elaborated in separate
expressions, which are generally optional, and which are less compact in form. As a
consequence of these differences, it seems—at least in our data—that English and German
narrations are characterized by a great deal of dynamic path and manner description, while
Spanish, Hebrew, and Turkish narrations are less elaborated in this regard, but are often
more elaborated in description of locations of protagonists and objects and of endstates of
motion. (Berman & Slobin, 1994: 118-119)
As stated in the quotation, narrative styles in verb- and satellite-framed languages are
quite distinct in terms of dynamism of the events being depicted. Satellite-framed
languages presented more dynamic and lively descriptions of motion events both
with respect to manner of motion and paths, while verb-framed languages tended to
focus on static descriptions of the setting and the protagonist’s endpoint of location.
Applying Ikegami’s (1991) terminology of become-language (i.e., which focuses on
the change from one state into another, such as Japanese) vs. do-language (i.e.,
which focuses on the activity of an individual, such as English), verb-framed
languages might be described as become-languages since they devote more narrative
attention to static descriptions of the setting and tend to express more often the
Figure’s endpoint of location, leaving the Figure’s ways of moving through space
and the trajectories it follows to be inferred. These ways of moving an trajectories, in
contrast, are favoured by satellite-framed languages or do-languages. These
differences in narrative style were unexpected consequences of the two lexicalisation
60
patterns posited by Talmy. Importantly, the differing ways of expressing Manner and
Path in verb- and satellite-framed languages have an impact on narrative style which
would not have been observed unless studying language in use.
For the purposes of this dissertation, we are concerned with crosslinguistic
differences in the expression and elaboration of Path and Manner between English
and Spanish. We briefly illustrate these differences with examples of English and
Spanish taken from Berman & Slobin (1994) and Slobin (1996a, 2004). Regarding
the expression of Manner, English elicited narratives displayed a greater token and
type frequency of manner verbs than Spanish elicited narratives, which in turn
contained a higher number of path verbs:
(1)
English motion verbs: buck, bump, buzz, carry, chase, climb, come, crawl,
creep, depart, drop, dump, escape, fall, float, fly, follow, get, go, head, hide,
hop, jump, knock, land, leave, limp, make-fall, move, plummet, pop, push,
race, rush, run, slip, splash, splat, sneak, swim, swoop, take, throw, tip,
tumble, walk, wander. (Berman & Slobin, 1994: 153)
(2)
Spanish motion verbs: acercarse ‘approach’, alcanzar ‘reach’, arrojar
‘throw’, baja(se) ‘descend’, caer(se) ‘fall’, correr ‘run’, entrar ‘enter’,
escapar(se) ‘escape’, huir ‘flee’, ir(se)’go (away)’, llegar ‘arrive’, llevar(se)
‘carry (off)’, marchar(se) ‘go (away)’, meter(se) ‘insert (oneself)’, nadar
‘swim’, perseguir ‘chase’, poner(se) ‘put (oneself)’, regresar ‘return’,
sacar(se) ‘remove (oneself)’, salir ‘exit’, saltar ‘jump’, subir ‘ascend’, tirar
‘throw’, traspasar ‘go over’, venir ‘come’, volar ‘fly’, volver(se) ‘return’.
(Sebastián & Slobin, 1994: 261)
Furthermore, in Spanish narratives, Manner tended to be subordinated, i.e., expressed
in optional constituents such as adverbs, gerundives, subordinated clauses, etc, since
the Spanish main verb typically encoded Path of motion.
In terms of the expression of Path of motion, Spanish speakers tended to use
bare motion verbs, i.e., ‘verbs with no elaboration of path beyond the inherent
directionality of the verb itself’ (Slobin, 1996a: 200) more often than English
speakers, who frequently added locatives and directionals to their motion verbs:
61
(3)
Se cayó
Lit. S/he fell
(4)
They fell in/into the water.
Furthermore, in Spanish narratives just one piece of information about the ground
was usually given, either the source (e.g., from X), the medium (e.g., along, through
X) or goal (e.g., to, towards X). English speakers, in contrast, mentioned more
ground elements per clause. In general, Spanish speakers tended not to express
complex paths with a single verb; when a complex path was described together with
one motion verb in Spanish, the trajectory usually involved the motion from a source
to a goal as in (5). In contrast, in English it is morphosyntactically possible to attach
several path segments to a single verb. Thus, English speakers readily compacted
several trajectories (expressed by satellites) with a single verb as in (6):
(5)
Se cayó de la ventana a la calle
Lit. S/he fell from the window to the street
(6)
He threw him over a cliff into a pond
Finally, when Spanish speakers described complex paths, they typically did so by
using several verbs and breaking the event into several segments:
(7)
El ciervo le llevó hasta un sitio, donde debajo había un río. Entonces el ciervo
tiró al perro y al niño al río. Y después cayeron.
Lit. The deer took him to a place, where below there was a river. Then, the
deer threw the dog and the boy to the river. And after that they fell.
The same patterns observed in oral elicited narratives are widely attested in
novels (e.g., Slobin, 1996a, 1996b, 1997; Özçalişkan & Slobin, 1999, 2003; MoraGutiérrez, 2001), and newspapers across a range of languages (e.g., Slobin, 2003;
Slobin, 2006a). Writers of creative fiction and reporters, though free to make full and
imaginative use of the language, conform to the same patterns found in the frog
62
stories. In terms of Manner, writers using satellite-framed languages devoted much
more attention to Manner of motion than writers using verb-framed languages.
Özçalişkan & Slobin (2003) provided interesting insights into the differing functions
that manner expressions beyond the verb phrase seem to play in novels written in
satellite-framed languages such as English and in verb-framed languages such as
Turkish. Turkish writers tended to accompany their path verbs with adjuncts
expressing Manner to compensate for the impossibility to encode Manner in the verb
on many occasions (such as in boundary-crossing events, etc). Thus, the high rate of
such manner expressions beyond the main verb in Turkish suggests a compensatory
function of these expressions. In contrast, manner verbs in English were very often
accompanied by manner adjuncts, which further contributed to and enriched the
manner details of the motion scene expressed by the main manner verb. Thus, such
manner expressions serve an augmentative function in English. In terms of Path,
novels written using satellite-framed languages provided their readers with more
elaborate descriptions of paths or trajectories of movement than novels written in
verb-framed languages. In contrast, writers using verb-framed languages offered
more information about the physical setting and the protagonist’s psychological state,
which allowed their readers to draw inferences about the manner in which the
protagonist moves and the trajectories3 s/he follows.
The Frog stories considered in volume II (2004) offer a more complex picture
of the crosslinguistic differences in the expression of motion. In the light of the data
from a large number of languages, the rigid dichotomy of verb- and satellite-framed
languages has been questioned (e.g., Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 2004a, 2004c; Slobin,
2004; Zlatev & Yangklang, 2004) as we saw in Chapter 2 (Section 2.3). On the one
hand, a third typological group was proposed, equipollently-framed languages, for
those languages whose morphosyntactic constituents expressing Path and Manner
have equal status. On the other hand, it was argued that it could also be possible to
rank languages in clines or continuums of manner and path salience, as languages
3
For research on the role of inferences in verb-framed languages versus satellite-framed languages,
see Papafragou et al. (2006) for Greek vs. English, Pourcel (2005) and Pourcel & Kopecka
(submitted) for French vs. English.
63
within the same typological group display different degrees of elaboration of manner
and path.
Another important outcome from the 2004 volume has been the proposal or
identification of a number of linguistic and non-linguistic factors which interact with
lexicalisation patterns. Slobin (2004) pointed out that the Talmian typology alone
cannot account for language use, and suggested that there are a number of additional
linguistic factors playing a part in the expression of motion. A language provides its
speakers with a range of lexical and morphological means for describing motion
events. It has also been shown than sound symbolic expressions contribute as well to
motion event descriptions in some languages, such as Basque (e.g., IbarretxeAntuñano, 2004b) and Japanese (e.g., Hamano, 1998; Kita, 1997):
(8)
Examples of sound symbolic expressions in Basque and Japanese (taken
from Slobin (2004: 233)
a.
Basque: plisti-plasti ‘waddle’; taka-taka ‘walk with small and short steps’
b.
Japanese: doya-doya ‘noisy way of moving’
In addition, a variety of non-linguistic factors 4 , including cognitive and cultural
factors, have to be taken into consideration to fully account for patterns of narrative
style.
Processing load is a cognitive factor that might account for the tendency to
omit manner information in verb-framed languages. Although these languages have
the option of using adjuncts or subordinate constructions to express Manner of
motion, this alternative is avoided most of the time. The reason seems to lie in the
unnecessary foregrounding of Manner when expressed in adjuncts, which results in
heavy processing of these constructions in terms of speaker’s production and hearer’s
comprehension (Talmy, 2000b: 128).
With regard to cultural factors, as Bavin (2004: 17) suggested: ‘[c]ultural
values will influence what a speaker determines as important when telling a story’.
Wilkins (2004) and Bavin (2004) pointed out that culture seems to play a role in the
4
See also Chapter 2 (Sections 2.3.3 and 2.3.4) for a review of the factors that play a role in a
language’s degree of elaboration of Manner and Path of movement.
64
great attention Arrernte and Warlpiri speakers give to path details. Australian
aboriginal culture highlights the importance of journeys as well as locations, and this
is without a doubt reflected in narrative style. Thus, in their frog stories, Arrernte and
Warlpiri speakers overall described scenes with many more path fragments than
speakers of other languages. Moreover, Bavin reported cultural preferences for
repetition of old information together with new information:
Information is repeated with some new added […] telling the frog story, a speaker might
give the information that someone fell, then someone fell to the water, then someone fell
down to the water and then specify that the child and dog fell. (Bavin, 2004: 20)
In sum, Talmy’s dichotomy of satellite- and verb-framed languages provides
valuable insights into lexicalisation patterns for motion in language. It has been
shown, however, that lexicalisation patterns alone cannot account for how language
is used in narrative discourse. Verb- and satellite-framed rhetorical styles could not
have been understood, except through a close examination of language in use.
Furthermore, linguistic and non-linguistic factors should be taken into consideration
so as to offer a more complete picture of how different languages talk about motion.
3.2.3. Translation
Slobin (2003) does not include any hypothesis on the consequences that differing
attention to manner may have in the translation process. However, he opened this
venue of research on translation of written narratives. This line of research addresses
the process of translating between languages which belong to different typological
groups, raising the question of how each language accommodates itself to the
demands of the other. To explore this issue, Slobin and his collaborators used corpus
data from 20th century novels and translations of The Hobbit by Tolkien (1937).
Slobin (1996a, 1997) initially focused on translations between English and
Spanish novels. In general, it was observed that English texts lose more in the
translation process than Spanish texts. With respect to manner information, when
translating from English into Spanish, only 51% of the original English manner
information was maintained in the Spanish target text, while in translations from
Spanish to English, 77% of the original Spanish manner information was kept.
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Moreover, English translators generally added manner descriptions not present in the
original Spanish text. Consider the following examples taken from (Slobin, 1997:
460):
(9)
Spanish original: … luego de diez minutos de asfixia y empujones, llegamos
al pasillo de la entrada …
Lit. … after ten minutes of asphyxiation and pushes, (we) arrived at the entryway …’
(10)
English translation: … after ten minutes of nearly being smothered or crushed
to death, we finally fought our way to the exit …
In the original Spanish text, the verb llegar ‘arrive’ (a path verb) has been translated
into English as fight our way. This expression encodes the difficulty of the motion
toward the entry which is not expressed by the main verb in the original text. This
manner information, however, could be inferred somehow by Spanish readers after
reading diez minutos de asfixia y empujones Lit.‘ten minutes of asphyxiation and
pushes’. Furthermore, it is important to reflect on the fact that English and Spanish
texts also differed in the type of manner information. As Slobin points out in the
quotation below, English possesses a richer and more elaborated manner-of-motion
verb lexicon than Spanish, whose manner verbs are quite general in meaning
compared to those of English.
Languages seem to have a “two-tiered” lexicon of manner verbs: the neutral, everyday verbs
– like walk and fly and climb, and the more expressive or exceptional verbs – like dash and
swoop and scramble. In S-languages [satellite-framed languages, e.g., English], the second
tier is extensive and elaborated, making distinctions that do not play a role in the
considerably smaller second tiers in V-languages [verb-framed languages, e.g., Spanish].
(Slobin, 1997: 459).
The greater diversity of manner verbs in English poses additional problems for
Spanish translators. When translating motion events without boundary crossing, they
may or may not decide to express the manner information conveyed in the English
original. If they opt to do so, Spanish translators tend to compensate lexical gaps by
66
including adjuncts. However, as has already been mentioned, Spanish translators
sometimes decide not to include manner information at all. When the Manner of
motion is the common, natural or default way of moving, Spanish uses more neutral
verbs. For example, if we read un pajaro entró a la habitación Lit. ‘a bird entered to
the room’, a Spanish speaker infers that the bird flew into the room. Thus, Spanish
readers seem to rely more on context and draw inferences from the text than English
readers, who are used to the overt expression (Sinha & Kuteva, 1995) of manner
information (e.g., The bird flew into the room). Another closely related reason that
might explain the avoidance of manner in adjunct expressions is that the pace of
narration could be easily broken up if translators give too many unnecessary details
to Spanish readers.
In terms of path details, English translations were faithful to the original
Spanish in 92% of cases, and even occasionally added some more path information.
In contrast, when translating from English to Spanish, the Spanish target text kept
only 76% of path descriptions. In general, Slobin (1996a, 1997) concluded that it
seems that Spanish translators resorted to omitting path and manner information
when it was easily recoverable from context and it was not relevant enough to be
included in the narrative. Thus, readers were left to rely on their inferences from
context, which is to be understood as including both descriptions of the setting and
information given earlier in the discourse. Consider the examples below taken from
Slobin (1997: 443). In example (11), two trajectories are described (across X to Y),
whereas in (12) the across trajectory is omitted as it can be easily inferred that, if the
protagonist is in a room and s/he goes toward the door, the protagonist needs to walk
across the room to reach the door.
(11)
English original: He strolled across the room to the door.
(12)
Spanish translation: Se dirigió a la puerta.
Lit. (He) directed himself to the door
Furthermore, the impossibility of expressing several trajectories with a single motion
verb in Spanish poses further problems to Spanish translators. As the examples
below illustrate, English’s smooth flow of the protagonist’s trajectory is broken in
67
the Spanish translation by including a path verb for each one of the trajectories
expressed by English satellites.
(13)
English original: Then I, too, went down the steep twisting path through the
dark woods to the beach below
(14)
Spanish translation: También yo tomé entonces el pendiente y tortuoso
sendero que, atravesando la arboleda oscura, bajaba a la playa.
Lit. Then I, too, took the steep and twisting path that, traversing the dark
woods, descended to the beach.
On the whole, English translators seem to have an easier task than Spanish
translators as in English it is syntactically possible to pack both manner information
and elaborated trajectories (including several grounds) within a single clause. That
might explain why English translators often even include manner and path
information which is not present in the original Spanish text. For Spanish translators,
in contrast, the task is harder as they have to decide what sort of ground, path and
manner information to express in order not to slow down or break the pace of
narration.
More recently, Slobin (2005) has widened his research scope to include
translations from the English novel The Hobbit into nine languages: Dutch, German,
Russian, Serbo-Croatian, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew and Turkish.
His research further supports his previous findings regarding translations from
English to Spanish, and generalises them to a larger number of languages. Verbframed languages, as has been discussed, apparently are less concerned with manner
of motion than satellite-framed languages, and they break complex paths into several
segments. Overall, when translating from English into verb-framed languages, it
appears that there is a greater loss of both path and manner information than in
translations into satellite-framed languages.
Starting from Slobin’s insights into translations from English to Spanish,
Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2003) compared and analysed in detail the different strategies
that Spanish and Basque translators follow when rendering fragments of Chapter 6
from The Hobbit. She started from the translation strategies described above (Slobin,
68
1996a, 1996b, 1997, 2004). However, in the light of her data, she provided a richer
picture of translation strategies, as Table 3.1 illustrates:
MANNER INFORMATION
Omission of any manner information
Strategy M-1
Strategy M-2
Translation of the same type of manner information (verb or
separate expression)
Strategy M-3
Substitution of a manner of motion verb for a path verb
Strategy M-4
Substitution of a manner of motion verb for a motion verb
Strategy M-5
Substitution of a manner of motion verb for any verb
Strategy M-6
Translation of a portion of manner information
Strategy M-7
Translation of a different type of manner information
PATH INFORMATION
Strategy P-1
Omission of some path element
Strategy P-2
Insertion of a new motion verb, usually a path verb
Strategy P-3
Translation of all path information
Table 3.1. Strategies for translating path and manner information in Spanish and Basque (taken
from Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 2003: 165)
Her main contribution is the identification of more available strategies than those
discussed in previous research. It is necessary to take into account the quantity and
type of manner information translated into the target text: whether manner
information is totally or partly rendered, whether translators choose to render manner
verbs by other manner verbs which encode only part of the information (M-6) or
even different types of manner information (M-7), and if totally omitted, which verbs
are used instead (M-3, M-4, M-5).
3.2.4. Sign languages and co-speech gestures
Thinking-for-speaking research also extends to sign languages and to gestures
accompanying verbal descriptions of motion events. Research on sign languages
shows that sign languages encode much more conceptual information about the
motion event than spoken languages, as we will see in Section 3.2.4.1. Research on
co-speech gestures suggests that gestures are linked to what is being said, that is,
69
gestures fit the speaker’s conceptualisation of the motion event for the purposes of
speaking. Moreover, like sign languages, gesture also encodes spatial information
which is not usually verbalised. We will consider co-speech gestures in Section
3.2.4.2.
3.2.4.1. Sign languages
Signed languages of course also have resources for describing motion events, some of which
may be unique to the sign modality.
(Taub & Galvan, 2000: 177)
In a written interview conducted by Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2006c), Talmy 5 points out
that there is accumulating evidence that spoken and sign languages are different; they
differ in many respects in their structure and organisational principles (p. 261). One
of the differences, as noted by Talmy, is that signed languages have a formally
distinct subsystem that has no counterpart in spoken language. This subsystem is
dedicated solely to the schematic representation of objects moving or located with
respect to each other in space, and it has more spatial categories than the spatial
portion of spoken language. Talmy counts thirty spatial parameters expressed by
hand movements in signed language, whereas only six distinct parameters are found
in spoken language. Sign language allows finer spatial distinctions, which are mostly
iconic. Talmy (in Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 2006c: 262) illustrated these parameters in
American Sign Language. A signer can move his dominant hand with respect to his
nondominant hand in a certain complex pattern that simultaneously represents all the
following parameters of a Motion event:
a.
The category identity of the Figure object
b.
The category identity of the Ground object
c.
The motive state of the Figure
d.
The Path of the Figure relative to the Ground
5
See also Talmy (2003) for a comprehensive account on the representation of spatial structure in sign
languages.
70
e.
The elevation angle of the Path
f.
The curvature or contour of the Path (e.g., straight line, curve, circle)
g.
The distance between Figure and Ground (e.g., distal, proximal)
h.
The relative length of the Path before and after encounter with the Ground
i.
The Manner of motion
j.
The speed of motion
However, similarities between signed and spoken languages in terms of the
expression of motion exist as well. For example, both modalities have basic
conceptual elements, and in both, a spatial situation can often be conceptualised in
more than one way.
Galvan & Taub 6 (2004) compared frog stories in English and in American
Sign Language. Their results showed ASL signers consistently incorporated much
more conceptual information into their descriptions of motion events than English
speakers; the visual modality of the signer’s hands, face and body allowed a richer
description than spoken language alone or combined with gesture. Furthermore, their
results supported the claim that motion events were conceptually separated into
different pieces (Slobin & Hoiting, 1994; Supalla, 1982, 1990). Signers break up the
details of Manner of motion, Paths, Figures and Grounds into different pieces which
are presented sequentially (like in spoken languages) instead of simultaneously.
Some of these elements are repeated to provide coherence to the separated
presentation. Their findings, moreover, suggested that boundary-crossing events
were, as in verb-framed languages, special for ASL signers: ‘they would create forms
with straight paths for non-impeded crossings and complex paths for impeded ones’
(ibid: 212). Finally, Galvan & Taub maintained neutrality on the issue of whether or
not sign languages are verb-framed languages. Although Slobin & Hoiting (1994)
claimed that sign languages are complex verb-framed languages (i.e., verb-framed
because they express Path; complex because of simultaneity of Figure, Manner and
Path), they suggested that ‘we need to expand Talmy’s typology to accommodate
languages which conflate Path, Manner, and Figure into a single verb form’ (Galvan
& Taub, 2004: 212).
6
See also Taub & Galvan (2000).
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3.2.4.2. Co-speech gestures
David McNeill and his colleagues (e.g., McNeill, 1992; McNeill & Duncan, 2000;
Taub, Piñar & Galvan, 2002; Özyürek & Kita, 1999; Kita & Özyürek, 2002; Özyürek
et al, 2005) explore the area of nonverbal expression of motion in studies of cospeech gesturing, i.e., gestures accompanying speech. One of the methods they use is
to show participants a cartoon movie (Canary Row, with Tweety and Sylvester) and
ask for a subsequent narration, which is videotaped for later analysis. Their research
addresses the question of whether gestural descriptions of motion events reflect
cross-linguistic differences in lexicalisation patterns. On the whole, distinctly
different patterns of gesture in speakers of English, Spanish, Turkish and Japanese
were found.
McNeill (2000) and McNeill & Duncan (2000) reported distinctly different
behaviour for English and Spanish speakers’ co-speech gestures. Their studies
suggested that speakers of Spanish commonly conflated Manner and Path in their
gestures. Although Manner was often omitted in their verbal descriptions, Manner
was abundant in their gestures and was distributed over path phrases given in speech.
In other words, manner gestures were present throughout the utterance. Such
distribution of manner gestures over verbalised path expressions was termed manner
fog. Since Manner was not usually verbalised in speech but was frequently gestured,
they concluded that gestural descriptions by Spanish speakers served a compensatory
function.
Taub, Piñar & Galvan (2002) also focused on English and Spanish co-speech
gestures. Though their results were still preliminary, it seemed that English speakers
gave greater attention to Manner both lexically and gesturally than did Spanish
speakers. In line with their verbal descriptions, gestures by English speakers
expressed both manner and path information whereas gestures by Spanish speakers
generally downplayed manner details. These results might be interpreted as if
gestures only encode what is expressed in speech, and thus, gesture is tightly tied to
language 7 .
7
The interested reader can find a summary of competing theories of gesture production in Kita &
Özyürek (2002).
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Kita & Özyürek (2002) and Özyürek et al (2005) found that gestures that
were used to express the same motion events in English, Japanese and Turkish were
influenced simultaneously by (a) how conceptual elements were expressed in each
language, and by (b) spatial information in the stimulus (i.e., in the Tweety and
Sylvester cartoon movie) which was never verbalised. On the one hand, their results
showed that linguistic differences in the expression of motion were reflected in
gesture. Therefore, a semantic feature such as Manner of motion, which is difficult to
verbalise in verb-framed language, is less likely to be gestured by Japanese and
Turkish speakers than by English speakers. Furthermore, if a language can compact
or package manner and path information as English does, then, it is more likely that a
single gesture will be used instead of two separated gestures (as was the case for
Japanese and Turkish speakers). Finally, it was also found that in cases where there
were no cross-linguistic differences in speech, the gesture patterns looked alike. On
the other hand, gestural representation was also found to be influenced by spatial
information of the stimulus. Speakers of English, Japanese and Turkish regularly
gestured certain spatial details which were not verbally expressed in the concurrent
speech (e.g., movement from right to left, which was not considered as relevant for
linguistic description). This sort of information is typically encoded in sign
languages.
In light of the existing research on co-speech gesture, it might be concluded
that data on gestures in Spanish is not yet conclusive. It might well be the case that
manner gestures in Spanish could provide a sort of compensation for gaps in the
lexicon, but quantitative data is needed before drawing such a conclusion. On the
other hand, research on English, Japanese and Turkish, however, conclude that
‘gestures do not merely encode imagistic representations of the events but those
aspects that fit conceptualization of the event for the purposes of speaking’ (Özyürek
et al., 2005: 224).
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3.2.5. First language acquisition 8
[C]hildren are sensitive to language-specific categorization principles from their earliest
productive uses of spatial forms, and at least in some cases in comprehension even before
production begins.
(Bowerman & Choi, 2001: 505)
[L]anguage properties influence how children select or organize spatial information during
the course of development.
(Hickman, 2006: 281)
Cross-linguistic research has unveiled variations in how children acquire spatial
language (e.g., Bowerman, 1996; Bowerman & Choi, 2001, 2003; Casasola, 2005;
Choi & Bowerman, 1991; Choi et al., 1999). Such variability across languages casts
doubts on the existence of universals in the acquisition of spatial language 9 , and
suggests that language-specific patterns have an impact on linguistic and cognitive
development. From early on, children are guided by their language and seem to
construct a spatial language which closely fits the adult system.
Cross-linguistic differences can also be observed in how children talk about
motion in elicited oral narratives (e.g., Berman & Slobin, 1994), verbal descriptions
of video clips (e.g., Hickman, 2006; Oh, 2003) and spontaneous conversations (e.g.,
Semilis & Katis, 2003). Research using the frog story picturebook as an elicitation
tool has shown that children acquiring their mother tongue are guided by the set of
distinctions in their language to attend to specific features of events while speaking
(Berman & Slobin, 1994; Özçalişkan & Slobin, 1999; Slobin, 1996a; Slobin, 2001).
Generally speaking, children speaking satellite-framed languages use a higher
8
The reader interested in second language acquisition can see, for example, Hohenstein, J. Eisenberg,
A. & Naigles, L. (2006) which concentrates on cross-influence of L1 and L2 in Spanish-English
bilinguals in the linguistic expression of motion events.
9
For universalist accounts of spatial language, see, for example, Landau & Jackendoff (1993). For
experimental research suggesting general cognitive principles in language acquisition of spatial terms,
see for example, Munnich & Landau (2003), Helpos & Spelke’s (2004) replication of McDonough,
Choi & Mandler (2003) and Landau & Hoffman (2005).
74
percentage of tokens and types of manner verbs than children speaking verb-framed
languages, who tend to use path verbs instead. As Slobin (2003) hypothesised,
manner-of-motion verbs are acquired very early by children learning satellite-framed
languages. Furthermore, children speaking satellite-framed languages use motion
verbs with some path elaboration, whereas such descriptions are hardly used by
children speaking verb-framed languages. It is also noted that older children are
closer to the adult system than younger children. As age increases, they are capable
of providing more detailed descriptions of the motion event in line with the adult
system. Verb-framed-language speaking children are more concerned with setting
the scene and asserting changes of location (results) than satellite-framed-language
speaking children, who assert trajectories and attend to Manner of motion (actions).
Kyung-ju Oh (2003) elicited verbal descriptions from 3-year-old Koreanspeaking and English-speaking children using clips depicting everyday motion by
humans. In line with previous findings, she also found that children are influenced
very early by the typological properties of their native language. Korean-speaking
children produced manner verbs less frequently and path verbs more frequently than
English-speaking children. Furthermore, Korean children produced descriptions
encoding Path but not Manner more frequently than English children, who produced
verbal descriptions encoding both Manner and Path. On the other hand, some
common characteristics were noted between Korean-speaking and English-speaking
children. At an early age, both groups rarely expressed Path and Manner together in
their descriptions, though English children did so more frequently. Oh speculated
that at an early age children might be too limited cognitively to attend to various
components of a motion event at the same time, though another possibility might be
that they have not yet mastered the skill to pack both manner and path information
into a single description. In addition, it was found that children from both language
groups seemed to be more biased toward Manner than toward Path, and that they
tended to produce coarse manner of motion verbs (such as walk, or run).
Maya Hickman (2003, 2006) used animated cartoons on a computer screen to
elicit verbal descriptions. Her results showed that typological properties of English
and French as satellite-framed and verb-framed languages strongly influenced how
children (three- and five-year-olds) talked about motion. In line with previous
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findings, she noted that English- and French-speaking children used more complex
descriptions of both Path and Manner together with increasing age.
In terms of spontaneous or naturalistic conversations, Selimis & Katis (2003)
showed that Greek- and English-speaking children followed the typological patterns
of their mother tongue in preferring verbs which lexicalise either Path (for Greek) or
Manner (for English). Moreover, it was found that these differences appeared even
earlier than two years of age, but then diminished with age as the manner verb
lexicon in Greek children got richer in later development.
All in all, these studies provide linguistic data suggesting that children adopt
language-specific characteristics from a very early age. However, some
characteristics seem to be mastered early, while others develop more slowly.
3.2.6. Language processing
There is abundant research which has asked whether there are psychologically real
effects of language-specific semantic patterns on how we process language. Some
studies suggest that language-specific verb semantics (i.e., whether languages
typically code either Path or Manner in their motion verbs) seems to have a pervasive
influence on how speakers interpret the meaning of novel verbs, as well as on
speakers’ performance on other linguistic tasks (such as verb generation, etc).
Naigles & Terrazas (1998) found that adult English and Spanish speakers
differed in their expectations as to whether a novel verb encoded Manner or Path, the
former favouring Manner and the latter Path. Furthermore, in their experiment,
participants adjusted their assumptions about whether a novel verb expressed Manner
or Path based on the syntactic frame in which the verb was presented. Naigles &
Terrazas showed English and Spanish participants a video clip of a motion event—
e.g., a woman skipping towards a tree—and gave them a single sentence containing a
novel verb: e.g., She’s kradding the tree! or She’s kradding towards the tree!. They
used two kinds of frames: path frames containing a verb plus a noun phrase, and
manner frames containing a verb plus a preposition plus a noun phrase. Then,
participants were shown two further videos on different screens, one preserving the
Manner of the event but changing the Path (e.g., a woman skipping away from the
tree) and one preserving the path of the event but changing the manner (e.g., a
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woman marching towards the tree). Participants’ task was to indicate which video
depicted the novel verb. On the whole, it was found that adult speakers of English
chose the video that preserved the Manner rather than the one that preserved Path,
and the reverse was true for Spanish. Furthermore, they found effects of syntactic
frame on the interpretation of the novel verbs; participants were more likely to
choose the manner video if they had heard the novel verb in a manner frame, and
more likely to choose the path video if they had heard the verb in a path frame.
Along the same lines, Cifuentes-Férez & Gentner (2006) tested whether
English and Spanish speakers would show effects of their differing semantic systems
when inferring the meanings of novel motion verbs in brief written narratives. They
presented English and Spanish monolingual speakers with eight short passages
containing either a novel noun or a novel verb. After each passage participants were
asked ‘What does X mean?’ or ‘What is an X?’. In order to prevent people from
simply translating the novel words into existing words, the passages described
unusual events – e.g., rolling a device designed to remove burrs over one’s clothes;
moving across a hall using cleaning-rags underneath one’s shoes, etc. The
descriptions of the events always included both a path and a manner, so that
participants could lexicalise either or both. As predicted, Spanish speakers produced
a significantly higher number of path verb interpretations than English speakers.
Conversely, English speakers produced more manner verb interpretations than
Spanish speakers. These results were obtained despite the use of syntactic frames that
biased them against the predicted patterns. Spanish speakers were given frames that
included a preposition, thus encouraging interpretation in terms of a manner verb.
English speakers were given bare transitive frames—which would normally invoke a
path interpretation—yet the English speakers still preferred manner verb
interpretations. All in all, English and Spanish speakers were guided by their
differing semantic systems in inferring the meanings of novel motion verbs from
context. Their specific linguistic systems influenced which features they extracted
from context as semantic components of the novel verbs.
Apart from cross-linguistic studies examining the pervasive influence of
language-specific semantic patterns on language processing, we also find research
addressing the nature of those effects within a single language. A good instance is
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Billman & Krych (1998), which addressed how memory for motion events presented
in video clips might be influenced by linguistic information (an accompanying verb).
They presented English speaking participants with videotaped events accompanied
by either manner or path verbs. Then, participants returned for a visual recognition
test in which no verbs were presented. The task was to discriminate the old items
from new items with changed Manner or Path of motion. Their results showed that
the presence of either a path verb or a manner verb altered the participant’s
recognition of events. They found an effect of the type of verb initially given by the
experimenter on the type of recognition errors. More concretely, hearing a path verb
(as opposed to a manner verb) made participants more likely to correctly reject a
changed Path, and hearing a manner verb helped participants to reject changed
Manner.
In a later study, Billman, Swilley & Krych (2000) also looked for effects of
the type of verbs present at encoding (path or manner verbs) on later recognition.
However, the language manipulation was more indirect; in this experiment path and
manner verbs were not given by the experimenter but produced by participants.
Participants were asked to generate a verb to describe a set of video clips, and on the
next day, their task was to discriminate old clips from new clips. In line with their
previous research, they found that the type of verb generated by participants had an
effect on later event recognition. On the whole, these studies suggest that when a
person hears or produces a verb, distinctions in verb meaning (path and manner) bias
recognition. Using a particular type of verb channels the speaker’s attention to some
properties of the event while downplaying others.
Finally, Havasi & Snedecker (2004) argued that even though languagespecific semantic patterns are learned while acquiring one’s native language, both
adults and children could be trained to develop either a path or manner bias. They
taught English-speaking adults twelve new motion verbs. For each motion verb,
participants saw an ambiguous scene with a salient Path and Manner, and after
obtaining their initial interpretation, they saw five further instances of the new verb
which disambiguated its meaning. Half the participants saw video clips with the
same Manner but varying paths (which favoured a manner interpretation), and the
other half saw video clips with the same path but varying manner (which favoured a
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path interpretation). Finally, participants were asked to extend the new verb. On the
whole, it was found that English-speaking adults have an initial manner bias, as
shown by their initial interpretations. However, in response to the input, they were
highly like to extend the new verb according to the common semantic pattern they
had experienced across the five exemplars. Moreover, there was preliminary
evidence that five-year-olds were sensitive to this manipulation as well; they
developed either a manner bias or a path bias in their novel word interpretations
based on which series of videos they had received. This suggests that the semantic
patterns of a language act as default biases, not as fixed rules; they can be overridden
by experience.
3.2.7. Extensions to the domain of vision
Some scholars have pointed out that motion language is used metaphorically in a
wide array of abstract domains. For example, Narayanan (1997) remarked that bodily
movement serves as a metaphor for political and economic events: prices can drift,
soar, lurch or plunge; Özçalişkan (2002, 2004) pointed out that manner-of-motion
verbs are used for expressing basic emotional states: run into frustration, his mind
plunges in an awkward thought. This section does not deal with those abstract
domains but concentrates instead on the relation between motion and vision.
In a highly suggestive paper, Slobin (in press) explored the relations between
paths of motion and paths of vision in English, Russian, Spanish and Turkish. In both
English and Russian there are complex visual paths such as look from X to Y, look
past X into Y and look out into X. In contrast, Spanish and Turkish generally express
a single visual trajectory (e.g., look into X, look through X, etc), though sometimes
the complex trajectory from X to Y is found. Even though visual path verbs are not
available in most languages 10 , Slobin concluded that the patterns for conceptualising
10
As Slobin (in press) noted, Toba is the only documented language that has a set of vision verbs
which also encode path information (Klein, 1981). Toba is a Guaykuruan language spoken in
Argentine Chaco whose vision verbs express the direction of vision in a similar fashion to motion
verbs. For example, wa ‘look inward’, la ‘look ahead’, sa:t ‘look up at something moving’. According
to Klein (1981: 234), ‘the notion of direction of the eyes appears to be equivalent in the mind of the
native speaker to the notion of direction of a person’s legs across space’.
79
and expressing physical paths carry over into the conceptualisation and expression of
visual paths. Similar conclusions are reached in Chu (2003), who analysed visual
path expressions in Mandarin Chinese and suggested that this serial verb language
uses many physical path expressions with verbs of seeing.
Cifuentes-Férez (2006) contributed to this preliminary research on the
relationship between motion and vision as well as to the research on narrative
translations from satellite-framed into verb-framed languages. For her research, she
chose the well-known English novel Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and
its translation into Spanish, Harry Potter y la Orden del Fénix. Her main aim was to
investigate whether the crosslinguistic differences between English and Spanish
which had been reported for the domain of motion also applied to the domain of
vision. The basic assumption was that motion and vision are related domains at least
in two respects: (a) seeing is a type of fictive motion 11 (e.g., Talmy, 2000a: Chapter
2), and (b) verbs of seeing appear in the same kind of constructions as verbs of
motion (e.g., Gruber, 1967; Talmy, 2000a; Slobin, in press). Unlike Slobin (in press),
who just focused on the relations between paths of motion and paths of vision,
Cifuentes-Férez centred her research attention on both Path and Manner in both
domains; she compared and contrasted the degree of manner and path elaboration per
domain and language and she examined as well the translation strategies that the
Spanish translator resorted to in order to adapt the English source text to the Spanish
target text.
In terms of Manner of motion, her results were consistent with previous
research, and went a step further in unveiling some crosslinguistic differences.
English and Spanish differed in (a) which morphosyntactic constituents typically
encoded manner information, (b) the semantic specificity of their manner verbs, and
(c) the function that adjuncts encoding Manner had. As noted previously, the English
manner-of-motion verb lexicon is richer and presents finer manner distinctions than
does Spanish. It was found that Spanish motion verbs did not usually encode manner
information about the Figure’s physical or mental state (whether s/he is tired or
11
Fictive motion refers to those events which are linguistically expressed as if actual motion occurs.
Other labels for the term fictive motion are Langacker’s abstract motion (1987), and Matsumoto’s
subjective motion (1996).
80
angry, or s/he walks unsteadily, etc) and that the translator usually expressed this
information in adjuncts to compensate for lexical gaps (i.e., a compensatory
function). In the original English narrative text, in contrast, manner information
outside the verb root had an augmentative function as it further enriched the manner
information conveyed in manner verbs. With regard to manner of vision, it was
concluded that the English text used manner-of-vision verbs that were more specific
(i.e., richer semantically) than those of Spanish. As in the domain of motion, adjunct
expressions seemed to make up for lexical gaps (e.g., glare was translated by a
general vision verb plus an adverbial mirar con hostilidad ‘look with hostility’).
Furthermore, as Slobin (in press) had already pointed out, Spanish texts used
nominals (e.g., ojos ‘eyes’, mirada ‘look’, etc as in lanzar miradas desafiantes
‘throw challenging looks’) to describe visual acts much more often than the English
text. It seemed that the Spanish translator resorted to these linguistic means to
compensate for the lack of Spanish manner-of-vision verbs encoding such finegrained information. On the whole, it was observed that there was a substantial loss
of manner information in the Spanish translation: 36.46% of cases for manner-ofmotion verbs and 38.46% of cases for manner-of-vision verbs were lost in
translation. Despite the available linguistic means, manner-of-motion and manner-ofvision in the original English text were not fully conveyed in the Spanish translation;
on many occasions, manner information was not as specific as in the English
original, and it was even translated by different manners of movement and of seeing.
When examining Path of motion, the crosslinguistic differences reported in
previous research were further attested. In the Spanish texts, the use of path verbs
was significantly higher, and Spanish descriptions of Path were less complex and
contained fewer references to the Ground than those in the English original. English
presented a greater flexibility in the sort of path and ground combinations than
Spanish, which generally only expressed one trajectory plus a ground (e.g., en X
‘in/into X’; de X ‘from X’; hacia X ‘towards X’). The most complex path segment
found in the Spanish translation was por X hacia Y ‘through X to Y’, whereas the
most complex trajectory in the English original was down X, past Y, and down into Z
(four satellites plus 3 grounds). With regard to visual paths, no vision verbs in
English and Spanish expressing Path or trajectory were found (Slobin, in press).
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Visual trajectories were much less complex than physical ones and tended to mention
only one ground (i.e., the observed entity); yet, English visual paths were more
elaborated than Spanish visual paths. Regarding the translation strategies, it was
found that the Spanish translation kept path information in 51.61% of cases for
motion and in 50% of cases for vision, mostly by incorporating path verbs. However,
some trajectories were frequently omitted in the translation, particularly, paths
without grounds, such as deictic paths (e.g., around, back) and vertical paths (e.g.,
up, down).
Although examinations of original Spanish narrative texts would be needed
before we could draw sound conclusions on how Spanish expresses visual acts, this
preliminary exploration of the relations between motion and vision suggests that the
crosslinguistic differences reported for motion descriptions in narratives apply also to
the expression of visual acts. English, as a satellite-framed language, seems to have a
rich manner lexicon of verbs of seeing, and can readily compact several paths with a
single verb. In contrast, Spanish, as a verb-framed language, generally expresses a
single visual path: to/towards the entity being perceived (or Ground in Talmy’s
terminology), and their vision verbs are less specific semantically than those of
English. In sum, these differences reflect how language-specific ways of speaking
about motion influence how we talk about vision, and suggest that vision may be
conceptualised in terms of motion.
3.3. Linguistic relativity research
3.3.1. Introduction
The domain of motion has received special attention in linguistic relativity research.
According to Pourcel (2002: 127), motion events are an ideal arena for investigating
Whorfian effects for a number of reasons: first, languages differ in how they carve up
the domain of motion. Second, motion events are referred to in language with a high
level of frequency, and they are representative of actual language use. And third,
unlike the domain of colour, in this domain there are no ‘biologically-determined
concepts waiting to be labelled’ (Slobin, 2000: 122).
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Research on linguistic relativity effects in the domain of motion addresses
whether the differences in lexicalisation of Path and Manner result in divergent
conceptualisations of motion events. More concretely, research focuses on whether
the selective lexicalisation of Manner, optional in verb-framed languages but readily
expressed in satellite-framed languages, ‘entails differential levels of cognitive
salience of that variable across verb- and satellite-framed language speakers,
resulting in overall divergent conceptualisation of motion events’ (Pourcel, 2005:
126).
This question has been investigated by a number of scholars who provided
both positive and negative evidence for the bearing of motion language on cognition.
Section 3.3.2 offers a summary of research which provides positive evidence for the
claim that cross-linguistic differences in the encoding of motion have an impact on
the way we think about motion, in particular on mental imagery, on memory for
manner of motion and on how people form new concepts. Research on the negative
side suggesting that language does not affect cognition is assessed in Section 3.3.3.
Even though the same methods are approximately followed, studies in this arena
have produced mixed results. In light of this conflicting evidence, section 3.3.4
reviews research by Pourcel (2004a, 2004b, 2005) and Kopecka & Pourcel (2005)
which suggests that the intrinsic nature of the stimuli employed may be responsible
for a significant portion of the divergent results.
3.3.2. Positive evidence
As we saw in the introduction, Slobin (2003) hypothesised two cognitive
consequences concerning linguistic effects on imagery and memory: speakers of
satellite-framed languages will have rich mental imagery of Manner of motion, and
Manner of motion will be more salient in their memory.
Slobin (2000) reported richer mental imagery of manner of motion in English
speakers than in Spanish speakers. In a suggestive experiment, he gave passages
from novels to read to English and Spanish native speakers as well as English and
Spanish bilinguals, asking them later to report mental imagery for the protagonist’s
Manner of movement. The examples were extracted from Isabel Allende’s La casa
de los espíritus, and did not contain manner verbs, but the author provided
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information about the setting and the protagonist’s inner state allowing inferences of
manner of motion. His findings showed elaborated mental images for Manner in
English reports and less vivid or poorly detailed mental images for manner in
Spanish. Interestingly, bilinguals behaved according to the text’s language: if the text
was in English, and therefore, they were asked to provide reports in English, their
mental images for manner were significantly richer than when the text and the task
were in Spanish.
Kersten et al. (2003) showed that greater attention to Manner of motion by
English speakers relative to Spanish speakers is revealed as well in learning tasks.
English and Spanish monolingual participants viewed animated cartoons in which
bug-like creatures moved along various non-nameable paths in various non-nameable
manners. They were told that those creatures belonged to four different species and
they had to guess which by pushing one of four buttons. After each choice they were
told if they had guessed correctly or not. On the whole, no differences in how long
they took to learn to distinguish the bug-like creatures in terms of Path was observed,
but English speakers were significantly faster in learning to distinguish them in terms
of Manner despite the fact none of these manners of motion could be lexicalised in
English manner verbs. Furthermore, they also tested bilinguals in Spanish and in
English, and their results were similar to those found with monolingual speakers.
They concluded that the observed differences between the two groups regarding
learning Manner of motion concepts were a result of the different languages they
spoke. In sum, people learn to attend to the sorts of event details that are encoded in
their language.
Kyung-ju Oh (2003) reported differences in recall of manner details between
English and Korean monolingual speakers. She devised an experiment in which the
initial task of the participants was to view and describe some video clips. The clips
included several manners of motion (e.g., walking, striding, jogging, strolling,
trudging, sprinting, etc) as well as several paths (e.g., out of, up, down, around,
along, etc). Also, some filler clips which did not depict motion or displacement were
included (cooking in a kitchen and working with a computer). As predicted for this
task, English speakers provided more tokens and types of manner verbs and extended
manner descriptions than Korean speakers. The two language groups differed
84
according to their language-specific lexicalisation patterns. The difference across
languages was more pronounced in the descriptions of Walking-and-boundarycrossing video clips. After participants completed this task, they were presented with
an unexpected task. In this surprise task, they were told to compare their memory of
each clip with a standard clip of the same actor walking at a normal rate and then
answer a questionnaire on details of the events. The results showed that English
speakers were more accurate in identifying the length of stride and degree of arm
swing in the original clips than Korean speakers, although those specific manner
details were not present in their verbal descriptions from the initial task. Overall,
English speakers performed better than Korean speakers on memory for manner
information and answering manner questions about the videotapes.
Pourcel (2005) compared English and French speakers’ performance on two
recall tasks. English and French speakers were asked to view a short extract from a
silent Charlie Chaplin film, City Lights, and then they had to recall the scene verbally
(free prose recall). 24 hours later participants were presented with a questionnaire
about the film in which they had to recall varying aspects of the film extract. Like Oh
(2003), she used real-life motion, but her stimulus represented contextualised motion
events whereas Oh’s stimuli were not fully contextualised. Error rates in immediate
recall (after watching the short film) indicated significant crosslinguistic differences
in line with the semantic dimensions highlighted in French and English; French
showed better recall of agent details and path types (i.e., telic and atelic paths), but
worse recall of manner types (i.e., default manners, forced or instrumental manner of
motion, etc). In the late recognition task (24 hours later), significant differences were
also found. English speakers showed worse recall of telic paths, but better recall of
fine-grained manners, whilst default manners (e.g., run, walk) were equally recalled
by both groups. These findings suggest that English speakers pay closer attention to
fine-grained manners than do French speakers. Pourcel (2005: 285) concluded that
differences in memory across the two languages ‘appear to be in line with the
conceptual dimensions highlighted in French and English prototypical linguistic
encodings of motion, suggesting the possibility of relativistic effects of habitual
language patterns on memory’.
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3.3.2. Conflicting evidence
Before reviewing those studies yielding contradictory results, it is necessary to
provide a brief summary of the experimental paradigms adopted in order to better
understand the findings and conclusions. Most of this research usually combines
three tasks: naming, similarity judgments and memory tasks (recall and recognition).
In naming tasks, speakers are told to either fully describe or just label with one word
what is happening in visual motion video clips (e.g., Oh, 2003; Pourcel, 2005). In
similarity judgments, the triad paradigm is preferred. Triads consist of three video
clips: one is the target which displays both a Path and a Manner, and the other two
video clips are the path- and manner-alternates. That is, one of the video clips shares
the same Manner as the target, and the other shares the same Path. The three videos
in a triad usually display the same Figure (human or any other entity that moves) and
Ground, so as not to bias participants’ responses. Other tasks examine participants’
memory, either through recall (i.e., memory for details of what they saw) or
recognition tasks (i.e., just asks participants if the video clip they are watching is
‘new’ or ‘old’).
Gennari et al. (2002) were interested in investigating whether different
lexicalisation patterns of motion events in English and Spanish had any effect on
speakers’ performance in two non-linguistic tasks: recognition memory and
similarity judgments. They also investigated Slobin’s thinking-for-speaking by
asking some participants to verbally describe the motion events but not asking others.
The stimuli consisted of 36 triads of videotaped human motion. Overall, no
significant difference between English and Spanish speakers was obtained in their
memory for Manner of motion. However, they did find a linguistic effect in the
similarity task after verbal encoding. Spanish speakers in the verbal description
condition were more likely than English speakers to select the clip with same path.
Thus, the verbal encoding task had an effect on Spanish speakers’ later performance
in the similarity task. In contrast, English participants behaved in the same way
whether they linguistically described the stimuli before or after the similarity
judgments. Finally, when no linguistic encoding was required, performance across
languages did not show any preference for one dimension of motion over the other.
Their research suggests that linguistic and non-linguistic performances are
86
dissociable, but language made available in the experimental context may mediate
the speaker’s performance in other tasks.
Papafragou et al. (2002) conducted a similar study to Gennari et al., using
English and Greek (a verb-framed language). Their participants were both children
and adults. The tasks included (a) verbal descriptions and recognition memory of
static pictures adapted from the frog story, and (b) similarity judgments using triads
of static human motion pictures. They found that the two language groups differed in
terms of their linguistic descriptions, but their performance in the two non-linguistic
tasks was similar. Unlike Gennari et al. (2002), they did not find a facilitating effect
of verbal encoding in later non-linguistic tasks. Taken together, however, these two
studies are consistent with the Universalist approach to language and cognition:
cross-linguistic variability in the expression of motion does not reflect any
substantive differences in the ways humans think about motion.
Zlatev & David (2004, 2005) focussed on French and Swedish (a satelliteframed language). They used sets of triads showing a smiling tomato man 12
performing the motion scenes, which varied in terms of Manner (rolling, spinning,
sliding and jumping) and Path (e.g., from left to right, from right to left). As in
previous studies, participants saw triads and were asked to choose which alternate is
most similar to the target. Their results showed an overall preference for Manner
across languages. Unlike the research we have just reviewed, which concluded that
there was no a preference for either motion dimension over the other, Zlatev &
David’s results showed a significant preference for the dimension of Manner.
3.3.3. The role of telicity, type of Manner and type of Figure
Pourcel (2004a, 2004b) neither supports nor disproves linguistic relativity for the
domain of motion. However, her results are noteworthy as they show a correlation
between participants’ responses and the nature of the stimuli rather than between
responses and linguistic motion typologies.
12
Tomato man is a virtual elicitation tool developed at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
(Nijmegen, NL).
87
In her research on non-linguistic cognition, Pourcel dealt with English and
French speakers. Two separate experiments were carried out with unrelated samples
of participants. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to judge 15 triads of silent
video clips (a target plus a clip differing in manner and the other differing in path) in
terms of similarity. In Experiment 2, participants provided linguistic descriptions of
the clips prior to performing the similarity judgement task. Generally, the clips
depicted telic and atelic paths as well as different kinds of manner of motion: (a)
default or expected, (b) forced (i.e., level of difficulty in performance, such as skip,
kick, limp, zigzag) and (c) instrumental (i.e., cycle, skate, drive). Irrespective of
whether participants were asked to verbally describe the clips before performing the
task, her results showed that the stimuli manifested differential salience of the Path
and Manner dimensions of motion. Specifically, telic paths triggered path responses
whereas atelic paths triggered manner responses. Thus, as she remarked,
directionality seems to override the dimension of Manner as a general rule. When
directionality is unclear, Manner is given higher salience. Her results also showed
that default manner types (i.e., expected manners) were more likely to prompt path
choices than forced and instrumentality types of manner, which triggered manner
responses instead.
Pourcel (2005) further confirmed previous findings in another task assessing
conceptualisation through drawing, in which subjects had to draw five videotaped
motion scenes onto a static 2-D format. She found that Manner is more consistently
drawn when involving a higher degree of force dynamics, and Path when involving
telicity.
Moreover, these findings were further supported and extended by Kopecka &
Pourcel (2005), who adopted the same methodology. They found that Path salience
seems to be triggered not only by telic paths and default manners of motion, but also
by the animacy of the Figure. That is to say, when the Figure in the clip is human or
animate, Path is more salient to speakers across langauges than when non-human
Figures (such as tomato man) and inanimate objects are used in the video clips.
On the whole, linguistic relativity research starts from the assumption that the
main diverging point across languages is the greater attention to Manner by satelliteframed languages than by verb-framed languages —as Slobin has repeatedly claimed
88
throughout his thinking-for-speaking enterprise. However, conflicting findings have
been reported. Research by Pourcel (2004a, 2004b, 2005) and Kopecka & Pourcel
(2005) suggests those contradictory results may be due to the intrinsic properties of
the stimuli used, more concretely, to the types of Path, types of Manner and types of
Figures depicted in the video clips. As Pourcel (2004b: 90) concluded ‘[m]otion
itself is in fact exceedingly complex and cannot afford to be experimented on in so
naïve a light. A lot more understanding is yet to be acquired’.
3.5. Summary
Talmy’s binary typology has engendered a good deal of research and debate in the
literature on motion event descriptions over the last two decades. Slobin’s
hypotheses of thinking-for-speaking encompasses several lines of research in the
attempt to account for the pervasive effects that language use has on mental
processes tied to language.
Talmy’s typology provides valuable insights into lexicalisation patterns for
motion in language, but lexicalisation patterns alone cannot account for how
language is used in discourse. It has been shown that those lexicalisation patterns
have an impact on narrative or rhetorical style: English speakers seem to devote more
narrative attention to the dynamics of movement, in line with the availability of
manner verbs, which can be followed by satellites and locative prepositional phrases
to describe elaborated trajectories. Spanish speakers, in contrast, seem to be
constrained by their language to devote less narrative attention to actions and more
attention to static scenes instead. Moreover, in addition to these typological factors, a
number of non-linguistic factors, including cognitive and cultural factors have been
shown to play a part in the linguistic expression of motion.
Research on translation, reviewed in Section 3.2.3, has shown that differences
in lexicalisation patterns pose a great number of problems in terms of the expression
of both trajectories and manners of motion to translators.
Research on sign languages and co-speech gestures has also been reviewed.
Though sign languages provide richer conceptual information in their descriptions of
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motion events than spoken languages, similarities between them exist as well. Both
modalities share some basic conceptual elements (Figure, Ground, Path, Manner,
etc), which are presented sequentially rather than simultaneously. In addition, in both
types of languages, a spatial situation can often be conceptualised in more than one
way. Moreover, like verb-framed languages, sign languages seem to be sensitive to
boundary-crossings. Relatedly, research on co-speech gestures concludes that
gestures, which are used to express the same motion events in different languages,
are influenced simultaneously by (a) how conceptual elements are expressed in each
language, and by (b) spatial information in the stimulus. In other words, gestures
reflect cross-linguistic differences but, irrespective of language, speakers also include
in their gestural descriptions other spatial properties of the motion event which are
not verbally encoded. In sum, due to the intrinsic iconic nature of signing and
gesturing some spatial details tend to be expressed which are normally ignored in the
verbal descriptions of motion events.
Taken as a whole, linguistic research inspired by the Talmian typology
documents habitual ways of speaking and writing about motion which have served as
foundations for investigating (a) how children learn language-specific patterns, (b)
the effects of those patterns on language processing, and (c) whether the effects go
beyond thinking for the purposes to use language.
Section 3.2.5 has concentrated on child language acquisition research. A
number of studies have concluded that children are influenced very early by the
typological properties of their languages. Verb-framed-language speaking children
are more concerned with setting the scene and asserting changes of location (results)
than satellite-framed-language speaking children, who assert trajectories and attend
to manners of motion (actions). Irrespective of language, it has also been shown that
older children are closer to the adult system than younger children. At an early age,
children rarely express Path and Manner together in their descriptions, though
English children do so more frequently than verb-framed-language speaking
children. With increased age, children are capable of providing more detailed
descriptions of motion events in line with the adult system. On the whole, it might be
concluded children are trained to think-for-speaking in terms of their mother tongue
acquiring some language-specific properties earlier than others.
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Section 3.2.6 focused on language processing. It has been argued that
language-specific verb semantics seem to bias speakers’ interpretations of novel
verbs as well as their performance on other linguistic tasks. It has been found that
English and Spanish speakers are guided by their semantic systems when inferring
the meanings of novel motion verbs from context. In addition, it has also been shown
that adults could be trained to think with a path or a manner bias and to interpret
novel verbs in agreement with such training. These findings suggest that, in response
to linguistic input, adults may show similar flexibility to that seen in children’s
learning and interpreting the meaning of motion verbs.
In section 3.2.7, the similarities that motion and vision share with regard to
the expression of Path and Manner were discussed. Research suggests that (a) the
patterns for conceptualising and expressing physical paths carry over into the
conceptualisation and expression of visual paths, and (b) satellite-framed languages
which possess rich manner-of-motion verb lexicons also have an extensive mannerof-vision verb lexicon. In general, it has been shown that the crosslinguistic
differences reported for motion descriptions in narratives apply as well to the
expression of visual acts. As a consequence of those linguistic differences, translators
face similar problems to those reported for motion when translating visual acts
between typologically distinct languages.
Finally, research addressing the linguistic relativity hypothesis was reviewed
in section 3.3. This line of research addresses whether differences in the
lexicalisation of Path and Manner in verb- and satellite-framed languages has an
influence on speakers’ conceptualisation of motion. This question has been
extensively investigated, yielding mixed results for the influence of language on
cognition. On the one hand, several studies suggest that speakers of satellite-framed
languages seem to have richer mental imagery of Manner of motion, and that the
Manner dimension of motion appears to be more salient in their memory for events
than for speakers of verb-framed languages. On the other hand, a number of studies
which suggest that language does not influence non-linguistic cognition have been
reported. Although both sets of studies use similar methodologies, their results are
contradictory. Research by Pourcel (2004a, 2004b, 20005) and Kopecka & Pourcel
(2005) shed some light on this conflicting evidence by demonstrating that the stimuli
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employed in linguistic relativity research may be responsible for such divergent
findings. These scholars show that the intrinsic nature of the stimuli, specifically, the
types of Path, Manner and Figures, appear to have a significant effect on the salience
of Manner and Math across typologically distinct languages.
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CHAPTER 4
CLASSIFICATIONS AND ANALYSES OF MOTION VERBS
4.1. Introduction
4.2. The Syntax-Semantics interface
4.2.1. Introduction
4.2.2. Motion verb classes
4.3. The Functional-Lexematic model
4.3.1. Introduction
4.2.2. Lexical subdomains of motion
4.4. Online verb databases
4.4.1. Introduction
4.4.2. Adesse
4.4.3. FrameNet and Spanish FrameNet
4.4.4. WordNet and MultiWordNet
4.4.5. VerbNet
4.5. The semantics of motion verbs
4.5.1. Introduction
4.5.2. Manner verbs
4.5.3. Path verbs
4.6. Summary
CHAPTER 4. CLASSIFICATIONS AND ANALYSES OF MOTION VERBS
4.1. Introduction
The first aim of this chapter is to briefly review classifications and analyses of
motion verbs from different theoretical backgrounds. Although this dissertation is not
based on any of these theories or approaches, their insights into motion verbs are of
valuable interest to better understand the complex syntactic and semantic nature of
motion verbs.
Section 4.2 begins with an overview of the Syntax-Semantics Interface
approach to the analysis of motion verbs, which explores how a verb’s semantics can
determine the syntactic realisation of its arguments. Scholars within this approach
seek to both identify the semantic notions which are relevant for syntactic structure
(i.e., which semantic properties of verbs are syntactically reflected) and to put
forward motion verb classes in English and Spanish in terms of their semantic and
syntactic properties. In section 4.3, two classifications of English motion verbs
within the Functional-Lexematic model are presented. Though also concerned with
the syntactic properties of motion verbs, scholars working within this model adopt a
more semantically-oriented approach to the organisation of the motion verb lexicon.
Section 4.4 offers a brief overview of some of the existing online databases for
English and Spanish verb lexicons. In these databases, various classifications of
motion verbs can be found, ranging from more syntactically-oriented to more
semantically-oriented classifications.
The second aim of this chapter is to offer a list of fine-grained semantic
notions which have proven useful for exploring crosslinguistic differences and
similarities in the motion verb lexicon. As we presented in Chapter 2 (Section 2.2.3),
Talmy’s three-way typology proposed a classification of languages based on the sort
of semantic information which their verb roots characteristically encode; thus, he
identified three major types of motion verbs: Path-conflating verbs, Mannerconflating verbs, and Figure-conflating verbs. However, motion verbs might be
further analysed in terms of more specific manner details (e.g., rate or speed of
motion, means of conveyance or vehicle, etc) and path details (e.g., horizontal axis,
vertical axis, motion away from/towards, etc). Section 4.5 presents the semantics of
motion in a more fine-grained fashion than Talmy’s general components. In addition,
crosslinguistic research on manner and path verbs is briefly reviewed; this research
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suggests that verb-framed and satellite-framed languages possess a similar number of
path verbs, whereas they significantly differ in the number of manner verbs as well
as in the sort of fine-grained manner information that they encode.
4.2. The Syntax-Semantics interface
4.2.1. Introduction
Many theories have been built on the assumption that the syntactic realisation of
arguments is largely predictable from the meanings of verbs. The fact that verbs with
similar meanings show characteristic argument realisation patterns suggests that
these patterns can be attributed to the semantic properties of each class. The main
goal of theories concerned with the close relation between syntax and semantics is to
identify the relevant components of meaning as well as to explicate their connection
to the range of argument realisation options (Levin & Rappaport Hovav, 2005: 3). In
the present work, these theories or approaches are grouped under the rubric/label The
Syntax-Semantics Interface.
Motion verbs are a problematic verb class for research on the relation
between syntax and semantics since they do not seem to behave syntactically as a
coherent semantic class. Across languages, it is observed that syntactic subjects of
some motion verbs share some properties with the direct objects of transitive verbs
(i.e., they act as Patients or Themes), whereas subjects of other motion verbs act as
Agents.
Perlmutter (1978) formulated The Unaccusative Hypothesis, by which two
types of intransitive verbs associated with two different syntactic configurations were
proposed: unacussative and unergative verbs. The former are intransitive verbs
whose syntactic subjects are not semantic Agents; whereas the latter are intransitive
verbs whose syntactic subjects act as Agents. Accordingly, intransitive motion verbs
can be further divided into unaccusative and unergative verbs.
Levin & Rappaport Hovav (1992: 252) suggested that motion verbs would be
better characterised in terms of which components of meaning are lexicalised in the
verb itself, rather than in terms of the thematic roles of the verb’s arguments –as the
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Unaccusative Hypothesis claims. In other words, they argued for a closer look at
what components of verb meaning are relevant for the unaccusative-unergative
distinction. Overall, these authors concluded that the meaning components of
direction (Talmy’s Path), manner (Talmy’s Manner) and direct external cause
(Talmy’s Cause) have proven to be useful for the lexical semantic representation of
motion verbs, as they seem to account for the different syntactic realisations of
motion verbs.
4.2.2. Motion verb classes
Among the different classifications of motion verbs from the point of view of the
Unaccusative Hypothesis and/or the Syntax-Semantics Interface, we are especially
interested in the contributions of Levin & Rappaport-Hovav (1992) and Levin
(1993), for English motion verbs, and Cifuentes-Honrubia (1999), De Miguel (1999)
and Morimoto (2001) for Spanish motion verbs.
Levin & Rappaport-Hovav (1992: 252-253) proposed three main groups of
intransitive motion verbs:
a. Arrive class: arrive, come, go, depart, fall, return, etc.
These verbs are
unaccusative and express inherent direction, as their meaning includes a specified
direction of motion.
b. Roll class: roll, slide, move, swing, spin, rotate, etc. These are unaccusative verbs
encoding Manner of motion as well as direct external cause, that is, the action
denoted by the verb is directly caused by some external agent or force. As pointed
out by the authors, one interesting property of manner verbs with direct external
cause is that they allow transitive (i.e., causative, agentive) and intransitive uses. For
example, Andrew rolled Bill down the hill / Bill rolled down the hill. This alternation
seems to be found in many languages (Hale & Keyser, 1987, 1992).
c. Run class: run, walk, gallop, jump, hop, skip, swim, etc. These verbs express
Manner of motion but lack of direct external cause (i.e., the action denoted happens
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spontaneously). This group displays unergative behaviour; the syntactic subjects
have direct control over their actions.
Beth Levin, in her 1993 book English Verb Classes and Alternations: A
preliminary investigation, dealt with transitive motion as well. Her study was also
driven by the hypothesis that a verb’s meaning influences its syntactic behaviour.
She showed how identifying verbs with similar syntactic alternations provides an
effective way for distinguishing semantically coherent verb classes. With regard to
transitive and intransitive motion verbs, Levin (1993: 263-270) proposed the
following nine verb classes:
a. Inherently directed motion: advance, arrive, ascend, come, depart, descend, enter,
escape, exit, fall, flee, go, leave, plunge, recede, return, rise, tumble. The meanings
of these verb include a specification of the direction of motion (i.e., Path), even in the
absence of a directional complement. According to Levin, none of these verbs
specifies the Manner of motion. However, the members of this class do not behave
uniformly in all respects. Verbs differ as to how they can express the goal, source, or
trajectory of motion; depending on the verb, these may be expressed in a
prepositional phrase, as a direct object, or both ways as shown in (1).
(1)
a. The convict escaped from the police.
b. The convict escaped the police.
b. Leave verbs: abandon, desert, leave, etc. These verbs do not specify Manner of
motion; they just indicate that motion away from a location has taken place. The
direct object of these verbs is understood to be the location that has been left. The
location cannot be expressed in a prepositional phrase.
(2)
We abandoned the area.
c. Roll verbs: bounce, drift, drop, float, glide, move, roll, slide, swing, etc, plus verbs
describing motion around an axis: coil, revolve, rotate, spin, turn, twirl, twist, whirl,
wind, etc. This verb class specifies manners of motion characteristic of inanimate
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entities, that is, the Figure does not necessarily control its motion. In the absence of a
prepositional phrase, none of these verbs indicates the Path of motion. Levin noted
that many of the roll verbs that describe motion around an axis take a rather restricted
range of prepositions heading the prepositional phrase that describes the path of
motion, as in (3). Most verbs in this class show the Causative/inchoative alternation
only if the motion is externally controllable as in (4).
(3)
a. The ball rolled down the hill/over the hill/into the gutter.
(4)
a. Bill rolled the ball down the hill.
b. The ball rolled down the hill.
d. Run verbs: amble, backpack, bolt, bounce, bound, bowl, canter, cavort, charge,
climb, crawl, dart, dash, float, fly, gallop, goosestep, hike, hop, jump, march, mosey,
promenade, race, run, shuffle, sleepwalk, somersault, stroll swim, tiptoe, vault,
waddle, walk, etc. Most of these verbs describe manners in which animate entities
can move, although some of them may also be used to describe the movement of
inanimate entities. Further, no specific direction of motion is implied unless they
occur with an explicit directional phrase. Levin (1993: 267) pointed out that Run
verbs would probably need to be further subdivided as their syntactic behaviour is
not uniform. For example, as can be seen in (5), some Run verbs are found in
resultative constructions whereas others are not.
(5)
a. Tom ran the soles off his shoes.
b. ?We walked ourselves into a state of exhaustion.
e. Verbs that are Vehicle names 1 : balloon, bicycle, bike, boat, bobsled, bus, cab,
canoe, caravan, chariot, coach, cycle, dogsled, ferry, gondola, helicopter, jeep, jet,
motorbike, parachute, raft, rocket, skate, ski, tram, yacht, etc. These verbs mean
roughly ‘go using the vehicle named by the noun’. In principle, it should be possible
1
For a detailed discussion see Clark & Clark (1979). In their paper titled When nouns surface as
verbs, they explore different groups of English nouns which have come to be used as verbs over the
course of time.
98
for any vehicle name to be used as a verb of this type. Finally, this verb class does
not imply direction of motion unless there is an explicit directional phrase present.
(6)
They skated along the canal/across the lake.
f. Verbs that are not vehicle names: cruise, drive, fly, oar, paddle, pedal, ride, row,
sail, tack, etc. This group of verbs denotes motion using a vehicle but the vehicle
name does not coincide with the verb. For instance, fly implies an aircraft, pedal a
bike; cruise, row, sail and tack a ship or boat, etc. Similarly to the previous verb
class, no specific direction of motion is implied unless an explicit directional phrase
is present.
(7)
They rowed along the canal/across the lake.
g. Waltz verbs: boogie, bop, cancan, clog, conga, dance, foxtrot, tango, tapdance,
waltz, etc. These verbs mean roughly ‘perform the dance’. No specific direction of
motion is implied unless there is an explicit directional phrase present. Like vehicle
nouns, it appears that any dance noun can be used as motion verb.
(8)
They waltzed across/into/through the room.
h. Accompany verbs: accompany, conduct, escort, guide, lead, shepherd, etc. These
verbs relate to one person taking another from one place to another. According to
Levin, these verbs are differentiated semantically by the nature of the relationship
between the two participants.
(9)
Jackie accompanied Rose to the store.
i. Chase verbs: chase, follow, pursue, shadow, tail, track, trail, etc. These verbs are
typically transitive, with the chaser as subject and the person being chased as object.
Some of them allow an intransitive use, with the chaser as subject and a prepositional
phrase headed by after expressing what is being chased.
(10)
a. Jackie chased the thief.
b. Jackie chased after the thief.
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Cifuentes-Honrubia (1999) 2 and Morimoto (2001) split Spanish intransitive
motion verbs into two main groups: displacement verbs and manner verbs. These
authors observed some restrictions on the use of trajectories by these two groups of
verbs; to be precise, displacement verbs can combine with telic trajectories (i.e.,
implying a resultative change of location or endpoint), whereas manner verbs can
only combine with atelic trajectories which do not imply an endpoint (Aske, 1989;
Slobin & Hoiting, 1994).
Unlike Levin & Rappaport-Hovav (1992) and Levin (1993), CifuentesHonrubia and Morimoto did not separate manner verbs with external cause (i.e., Roll
class) from those without external cause (i.e., Run class). However, Morimoto (2001:
47) further subdivided Spanish manner verbs into two groups:
a. Caminar ‘walk’ class, which includes verbs such as correr ‘run’, gatear ‘crawl’,
nadar ‘swim’ and volar ‘fly’. This group refers to ways of moving which imply, but
do not specify, a change of location. To put it differently, the Figure (in Talmy’s
terminology) necessarily goes somewhere when performing these activities. Thus,
this group of verbs denotes translational motion 3 .
b. Tambalearse ‘totter, stagger’ class, which includes verbs such as agitarse ‘sway
onself’, balancearse ‘swing oneself’and temblar ‘shiver, tremble’. This group refers
to motion which is internal to the Figure; in other words, change of location is
absent. This group of verbs denotes self-contained motion.
With respect to displacement verbs or verbs of inherent direction (Levin &
Rappaport Hovav’s Arrive verbs), De Miguel (1999: 74-78) pointed out that Spanish
2
Cifuentes-Honrubia (1999) is not interested in the division of intransitive verbs into unaccusative
and unergative verbs; he argues that all Spanish intransitive motion verbs are agentive, and thus, such
a division is irrelevant. However, in much the same way as in the research on the Syntax-Semantics
Interface, Cifuentes-Honrubia is concerned with identifying all the relevant semantic distinctions
among motion verbs which are reflected in syntax.
3
See Chapter 2, Section 2.2.2 for a definition of translational and self-contained motion.
100
verbs of inherent direction can be further subdivided into two groups, since these
verbs display syntactic differences 4 :
a. Inherently achieved location verbs: caer ‘fall’, bajar ‘go down’, subir ‘ascend’,
entrar ‘enter’, salir ‘exit’, llegar ‘arrive’, etc. This group of verbs denotes inherent
direction with an endpoint; the Figure reaches its final destination or goal.
b. Inherent path verbs: dirigirse ‘go towards’, acercarse, arrimarse ‘go closer to’,
irse ‘go’, moverse ‘move oneself’, regresar ‘come back’, etc. This group denotes
inherent direction without an endpoint; thus, though the goal or final destination is
usually expressed by complements (e.g., irse a casa ‘Lit. go home’), it has not been
reached yet.
Much along the same lines as De Miguel, Cifuentes-Honrubia (1999) and
Morimoto (2001: 82) stated that inherent direction verbs – displacement verbs in
their terminology – might also be categorised in terms of the sorts of trajectories that
the verbs describe:
a. Trajectory HACIA ‘to, towards’: subir ‘ascend’, bajar, descender ‘descend’,
aproximarse ‘go closer to’, etc.
b. Trajectory DE and/or A:
- without boundary crossing: venir ‘come’, llegar ‘arrive’, partir ‘leave’, etc.
- with boundary crossing: entrar ‘enter’, penetrar ‘penetrate’, salir ‘exit’, etc.
c. Trajectory of traversal: pasar ‘pass, go through’, cruzar ‘cross’, etc.
4
According to De Miguel, verbs of inherently achieved location (i.e., verbs denoting the endpoint or
conclusion of motion) are unaccusative verbs whereas verbs of inherent path are unergative. The
former can be found in resultative constructions: Una vez caído el Muro de Berlín, la izquierda se ha
acabado (Lit. Once fallen the Wall of Berlin, the left has finished) whereas the latter cannot:
?Regresado Miguel, nos fuimos al restaurante (Lit. Come back [past participle] Miguel, we went to
the restaurant).
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To sum up, the heterogeneous syntactic nature of the motion verb lexicon has
posed problems to scholars concerned with the close relation between syntax and
semantics, leading them to propose different motion verb classes. Even though some
of the classifications are much more granular than others, all scholars agree that each
motion verb class is defined by both syntactic and semantic properties.
4.3. The Functional-Lexematic model
4.3.1. Introduction
The Functional-Lexematic Model was proposed by Leocadio Martín Mingorance
(1998), drawing heavily on Simon Dik’s Functional Grammar (1980, 1997). The
Functional-Lexematic model integrates semantic and syntactic aspects of verb
lexemes within a framework in which both paradigmatic relations (i.e., relations to
other verbs) and syntagmatic relations (i.e., relations to other elements in the
sentence) find their place. According to this model, the interaction of the
paradigmatic and the syntagmatic axes creates a third axis called the cognitive, which
consists of a hierarchy of conceptual categories which are linguistically motivated
(Rodríguez-García, 1997: 21).
Faber & Mairal-Usón (1999) and Rodríguez-García (1997) followed the
Functional-Lexematic model. Their main objective was to offer an account of the
English verbal lexicon which shows not only the semantics of verbs in a hierarchical
fashion (i.e., domains and subdomains), but also the relations between verb meanings
and syntactic argument realisations, on the one hand, and their close connection with
conceptualisation in the human mind on the other. These authors claim that argument
structure is motivated semantically (Faber & Mairal-Usón, 1999: 143), and thus do
not take syntax as starting point for the classification of the lexicon—in contrast with
approaches working on the syntax-semantics interface. In the Functional-Lexematic
model, the organisation of the verb lexicon is primarily guided by semantics, though
it also reflects syntactic properties. Furthermore, it is argued that such organisation of
the verb lexicon is ‘consonant with what is known of the organisation of the mental
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lexicon’ (Faber & Mairal-Usón, 1999: viii). On the whole, Faber & Mairal-Usón and
Rodríguez-García suggest that the hierarchical organisation of the verb lexicon they
propose may well correspond to our mental lexicon.
4.3.2. Lexical subdomains of motion
Faber & Mairal-Usón (1999: 55) considered a given lexical domain to include a
group of lexical units that share the same meaning (conceptual structure) and also
show a similar syntactical behaviour. They divided the verb lexicon into thirteen
major lexical domains 5 : Existence, Movement, Position, Contact, Change,
Perception, Cognition, Feeling, Speech, Sound, Light, Possession, and Action. For
the purposes of the present work, we are mainly concerned with their proposed
hierarchical organisation of the motion verb lexicon. They partitioned the lexical
domain of Movement into 4 major categories which were further subdivided as
follows:
1. General Movement (move, go, come)
a. To move in a particular way: speed, race, lumber, glide, leap
b. To move off/away: separate, leave
c. To move towards a place: go, travel, advance
d. To move across: cross
e. To move over/through: pass, clear
f. To move about in no particular direction: wander, drift
g. To move in relation to somebody/something: accompany, herd, take, bring,
follow
h. To move back and forth between places: sway, swing
i. To move into a place: enter, burgle
j. To move out of a place: emerge, exit
k. To move to a different place/position: change, switch, transfer
l. To not move anymore, after having moved: stop, halt
5
For a detailed list of the lexical domains and subdomains, see Appendix 1 in Faber & Mairal-Usón
(1999).
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2. Liquid
a. To move as liquid in a particular way: flow, ripple
b. To move in/downward below the surface of a liquid: sink, plunge
c. To move over liquid: sail, cruise
d. To move upwards to the surface of a liquid: surface
3. Atmosphere
a. To move as air: blow
b. To move through the air: fly, flutter, float
c. To move upwards in the air: rise, soar
d. To move downwards in the air: swoop, dive
4. Land
a. To move in a particular way: skulk, creep, scamper
b. To cause somebody/something to move downwards to the ground: trip,
tumble
c. To move one’s body: gesture, exercise
Faber & Mairal-Usón’s semantic classification of motions verbs mainly
included intransitive motion verbs in which the Figure moves or goes somewhere by
itself/himself/herself. In addition, they also take into account of some transitive
motion verbs in which the Figure is moved or displaced by an Agent (e.g., change,
switch, transfer, pull, drag, push, shove, meaning to cause somebody/something to
move to a different place/position). In other words, both self-agentive motion verbs
and agentive motion verbs were dealt with within their work.
Rodríguez-García (1997: 75-79) focused only on English transitive motion
verbs (i.e., agentive motion), though intransitive uses of these motion verbs were also
considered in his analysis. He distinguished three subdomains for Motion: (1)
Positional (Existence and Change), (2) Positional and Directional Motion, and (3)
Directional Motion, which were further subdivided. For the purposes of this
dissertation, we are mainly concerned with subdomains (2) and (3), subdivided as
follows:
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2. Positional and Directional Motion 6
a. Causing to alter a fixed course or position: flip, reverse, diverge, deviate
b. Emphasis on movement manners:
b1. causing to move around, in a circular manner: turn, spin, twirl,
revolve, wind
b2. causing to move from side to side: swing, sway, nod, bob
b3. causing to move up and down: bounce, spring, leap, throb
b4. causing to move in all directions: spread, cast, sprinkle, distribute
b5. causing to move in a liquid medium: drip, spray, drain, pour,
spill
c. Emphasis on the movement degree:
c1. causing somebody/something to move quickly: propel, race, rush,
gallop
c2. causing somebody/something to move slowly: decelerate, brake
c3. causing somebody/something to move suddenly: dart, dash, shoot,
c4. causing somebody/something to move briskly: shake, throb, flutter
c5. causing somebody/something to move slightly: stir, totter,
shudder
3. Directional Motion
a. Moving/Taking somebody/something away from (horizontal axis):
separate, leave, flee, remove, withdraw
b. Moving somebody/something forwards and towards (horizontal axis)
b1. by advancing: advance, approach
b2. by gathering things: gather, join, glue, tie
b3. by gathering people: crowd, meet
c. Moving somebody/something upwards to a higher position (vertical axis):
raise, elevate, climb, ascend
6
This lexical subdomain includes motion verbs that can express both positional or locative motion
(i.e., no change of location) and directional motion.
105
d. Moving somebody/something downwards to a lower position (vertical
axis): lower, descend, plunge, sink
Now that we have listed Faber & Mairal-Usón’s and Rodríguez-García’s
semantic classifications of motion verbs into domains and subdomains, we will
briefly comment on which semantic notions seem to be relevant for these
organisations of the domain of motion. On the whole, Faber & Mairal-Usón’s and
Rodríguez-García’s analyses of motion verbs took into consideration the semantic
notions of Path and Manner of motion. Faber & Mairal-Usón’s classification mixed
both path and manner verbs within the same domain; particularly, the domain of
general movement merges verbs denoting various paths (e.g., off/away, towards,
across, over, through, into, out of) together with verbs expressing particular manners
of motion (e.g., race, lumber, glide). Furthermore, their analysis took into account
Grounds, that is, whether the Figure is moving in relation to land, air, or water, and
thus, they proposed three distinct domains. On the other hand, Rodríguez-García’s
analysis of motion verbs separated path verbs from manner verbs. In the domain of
Positional and Directional Motion, he included manner verbs denoting two distinct
groups of manners: verbs referring to self-contained motion (i.e., with no change of
location of the Figure) and verbs denoting translational motion (i.e., the Figure
moves to an unspecified location by moving in a certain way). The former, i.e., selfcontained motion, included verbs denoting that the Figure moves in a circular
manner (b1), from side to side (b2), and up and down (b3).
The latter, i.e.,
translational motion, grouped manner verbs that imply that the Figure displaces, such
as those in (c1), (c2) and (c3). Finally, with regard to path verbs, Rodríguez-García
classified verbs within the domain of Directional Motion in terms of both the
horizontal and vertical axes, and in terms of motion away from – to/towards a place.
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4.4. Online verb databases
4.4.1. Introduction
Nowadays, there are some online databases on the syntax and the semantics of verbs
embodying a variety of theoretical backgrounds. Most of these databases can be
navigated with their own browser and a few of them are freely available for
download. In this section, we provide a brief overview of some databases for English
and Spanish, in which different classifications of motion verbs can be found, ranging
from semantically-oriented classifications, such as those in ADESSE, FrameNet and
WordNet, to more syntactically-oriented classifications, such as those in VerbNet.
4.4.2. Adesse 7
The Project Adesse (Alternancias de Diátesis y Esquemas Sintáctico- Semánticos del
Español) is being developed at the University of Vigo, Spain. The goal of the project
is to achieve a database with syntactic and semantic information about verbs and
clauses from a corpus of Spanish (160,000 clauses from a corpus of 1.5 million
words). The main final outcome of ADESSE is a corpus-based syntactic-semantic
database including, for each verb and each clausal construction in the corpus, a
pattern of arguments characterised in terms of syntactic function, phrase type, and
semantic role. Adesse proposes verb classes which are the result of a purely semantic
classification independent from syntactic differences among verbs. However,
syntactic structures have been considered a posteriori.
On the whole, general verb classes have been identified (e.g., FEELING,
PERCEPTION, COGNITION, SPACE, etc), which have been further divided into 51
subclasses, associated with more concrete conceptual frames, each of which
providing a specific set of semantic roles for labelling verb arguments. Thus, the
most basic and useful category in ADESSE is subclass. For example, the verb venir 8
(meaning ‘to move toward the speaker’) belongs to the general semantic class of
7
http://webs.uvigo.es/adesse/index.html. See also García-Miguel & Albertuz (2005) and García-
Miguel et al (2005) for a more detailed explanation of this project.
8
http://adesse.uvigo.es/data/desc_verbo.php?sense=3383
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SPACE and to the subclass of Displacement. When we navigate with the browser, we
learn that venir ‘come’ has been found in 1169 clauses with 53 different syntacticsemantic realisations. Furthermore, a rich picture of the verb’s arguments, their
syntactic function and the semantic roles 9 that they play in each one of those 53
syntactic-semantic realisations emerges on the screen.
Within the domain SPACE, over 400 Spanish verbs were classified into five
sub-classes (Martínez-Fuentes, 2004):
a. Displacement: 228 verbs, such as ir ‘go’, andar ‘walk’
b. Location: 216 verbs, such as poner ‘put’
c. Posture: 47 verbs, such as sentar ‘sit’, agachar ‘crouch’
d. Orientation: 11 verbs, such as señalar ‘point’, apuntar ‘aim’
e. Manner of motion: 40 verbs, such as chapotear ‘to splash’, aletear ‘flutter’, mecer
‘rock, swing’
More recently, a sixth sub-class has been added, namely Unión ‘Joint’, which
includes verbs such as juntar ‘join, put together, assemble’.
In Adesse, Displacement verbs (subclass a) include two groups of verbs: (1)
those expressing the manner of motion and (2) those of inherent direction (MartínezFuentes, 2004: 889). However, in most analyses of motion verbs, these two groups of
verbs are usually differentiated and grouped into two separate verb classes (e.g.,
Cifuentes-Honrubia, 1999; Morimoto, 2001)
4.4.3. FrameNet and Spanish FrameNet 10
The FrameNet project is creating an online lexical resource for English, based on
Fillmore’s Frame Semantics 11 and supported by corpus evidence (British National
9
The specific set of semantic roles for labelling verb arguments are: Móvil ‘Figure’, Origen ‘Source’,
Dirección ‘Direction’, Trayecto ‘Trajectory’, Beneficiario ‘Beneficiary’, Finalidad ‘Aim’, Medio de
Transporte ‘Means of transport’, Manera ‘Manner’, and Lugar ‘Location’.
10
http://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu; http://gemini.uab.es:9080/SFNsite/
11
For a brief overview of Frame Semantics see Chapter 2 (Section 2.1.3) and Evans & Green (2006:
Section 7.2).
108
Corpus, 100 million words). The aim is to document the range of semantic and
syntactic combinatory possibilities (valences) of each word in each of its senses. The
major product of this work, the FrameNet lexical database, currently contains more
than 10,000 lexical units, more than 6,100 of which are fully annotated in more than
825 semantic frames and exemplified in more than 135,000 annotated sentences.
According to Baker & Ruppenhofer (2002: 29), in FrameNet, verbs and other
lexical units are grouped according to conceptual structures or frames instead of in
terms of their syntactic behaviour. The main implication is that verbs grouped
together in FrameNet might be semantically similar but have different argument
realisations, and verbs which share the same syntactic behaviour might be
represented in two different semantic frames. The same applies to Spanish verbs in
Adesse. Thus, both FrameNet and Adesse adopted a semantically-oriented approach
to the classification of verbs. However, as García-Miguel, Costas & MartínezFuentes (2005) remark, a major difference exists between the two databases;
semantic classes in Adesse are much more general than frames in FrameNet.
In FrameNet, a lexical unit is a pairing of a word with a meaning. Typically,
each sense of a polysemous word belongs to a different semantic frame, a script-like
conceptual structure that describes a particular type of situation, object, or event and
the participants and props involved in it. For instance, the verbs drift, float, fly, glide,
and go evoke the Motion frame. This frame describes the situation in which an entity
(Theme) starts out in one place (Source) and ends up in some other place (Goal),
having covered some space between the two (Path). Theme, Source, Goal and Path
are the frame elements.
FrameNet can be considered as dictionary and thesaurus. The lexical units
come with definitions (e.g., walk is defined as an excursion or act of travelling on
foot) and with a set of examples which are meant to illustrate the combinatorial
possibilities of the lexical units. As each lexical unit is linked to a semantic frame,
and thus to the other words that evoke that particular frame, this makes the FrameNet
similar to a thesaurus. By way of illustration, the verb walk belongs to the Selfmotion frame, which also contains verbs such as amble, back, bound, dash, hop,
march, meander, promenade, scurry, sneak, tiptoe, trip, wade, waltz, etc.
Furthermore, FrameNet provides a network of relations between frames (e.g.,
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Inheritance relation, Subframe relation, Using relation, etc). For example, Selfmotion inherits from the Motion frame, which in turn does not inherit from a parent
frame. The Motion frame is the parent frame of the following frames:
•
The Mass-motion frame, e.g., crowd, flock, troop
•
The Motion-directional frame, e.g., descend, drop, fall, plummet, plunge, rise
•
The Self-motion frame, e.g., amble, back, bound, dash, hop
•
The Traversing frame, e.g., circle, crisscross, cross, pass, traverse
•
The Motion-noise frame, e.g., bang, buzz, crash, hiss, roar, rumble, splash,
thunder
•
The Fluidic-motion frame, e.g., bubble, cascade, course, drip, leak, splash
Moreover, the Motion frame is used (i.e., some of its frame elements are used),
among many others, by the following frames:
•
The Body-movement frame, e.g., bend, blink, bob, cross, shrug, wink
•
The Bringing frame, e.g., bring, carry, cart, convey, drive, fly, take,
transport
•
The Change-direction frame, e.g., swing, turn, veer
•
The Departing frame, e.g., abandon, depart, desert, disappear, escape, exit,
leave, vanish, withdraw
•
The Operated-vehicle frame, e.g., balloon, bicycle, bike, cruise, drive, fly,
motor, parachute, pedal, skate, taxi
Active research projects are creating comparable frame-semantic lexicons for
other languages. One instance is Spanish FrameNet which is being developed at the
Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain) and the International Computer
Science Institute (Berkeley, CA) in cooperation with the FrameNet Project. The
starter lexicon is expected to be available to the public in July 2008 and will contain
at least 1,000 lexical items (including verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and
prepositions) representative of a wide range of semantic domains. Like FrameNet,
Spanish FrameNet database will act both as a dictionary and a thesaurus. Like a
dictionary, it will include definitions, tables showing how frame elements are
110
syntactically expressed in sentences containing each word, and annotated examples
from a corpus. Like a thesaurus, Spanish FrameNet will link words to the semantic
frames in which they participate, and frames, in turn, to wordlists and to related
frames.
4.4.4. WordNet and MultiWordNet 12
WordNet is a large lexical database of English, developed under the direction of the
psychologist George Miller. English nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are
grouped into sets of ‘cognitive synonyms’ called synsets, each expressing a distinct
lexicalised concept. Thus, synsets are the most important units; they are interlinked
by means of semantic and lexical relations, such as troponymy (i.e., Y is a way of X),
hyperonymy (i.e., X is a kind/type of Y), synonymy (i.e., X is similar to Y),
antonymy (i.e, X is not Y), meronymy (i.e., an X is a part of a Y), etc. Miller &
Fellbaum (1991: 216-220) state that troponymy (from Greek tropos, i.e., manner or
fashion), also called verb hyponymy, is the most common semantic relation among
verbs. Many verbs indicate more precisely the manner of doing something, for
example, march, strut, traipse, amble, and mosey are troponyms of to walk. To put it
differently, they are ways of walking, mutually inclusive or temporally co-extensive
with walking; thus, when someone marches or struts, s/he is walking.
To illustrate how WordNet works, let us consider the motion verb walk. In
our search with the browser, it was found that walk as a verb has 10 synsets or
distinct meanings, among them ‘to use one’s feet to advance’, ‘to accompany or
escort’, ‘traverse or cover by walking’, ‘make walk’, ‘walk at a pace’, ‘take a walk
or walk for pleasure’. If we consider the synset ‘to use one’s feet to advance’, a full
list of troponyms (e.g., march, strut, promenade, stride, march, amble, mosey),
hyperonyms (e.g., travel, move, go, locomote) and antonyms (e.g., ride ‘be carried or
travel on or in a vehicle’) are displayed on the screen.
Generally speaking, WordNet acts as a dictionary and a thesaurus in much the
same way as FrameNet. However, a major difference between the two lexical
databases is that FrameNet is founded on corpus attestations, and thus includes
examples taken from the BNC corpus. Also, FrameNet offers syntactic information.
12
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/; http://multiwordnet.itc.it/english/home.php
111
FrameNet, however, does not take into consideration semantic relations (e.g.,
synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, etc) between words within frames in the way
WordNet does.
MultiWordNet is a lexical database for Italian which has been modelled after
English WordNet. The Italian synsets are created in correspondence with the
WordNet synsets, whenever possible, and the semantic relations are imported from
the corresponding English synsets. The information contained in the database can be
navigated through the MultiWordNet browser, which facilitates the comparison of
the lexicons of English and Italian. Furthermore, the MultiWordNet browser allows
for access to the Spanish, Hebrew and Romanian WordNets. MultiWordNet stresses
the usefulness of an alignment between WordNets of different languages, as it is able
to represent true lexical idiosyncrasies between languages, such as lexical gaps. For
instance, English amble, meaning ‘to walk leisurely’ has as Spanish counterpart
deambular or pasear, whereas Italian, Hebrew and Romanian do not seem to have a
semantically equivalent verb.
4.4.5. VerbNet 13
VerbNet is an online database for English verbs developed at the University of
Colorado by Martha Palmer. VerbNet extends Levin’s (1993) classes through
refinement and addition of further subclasses to achieve syntactic and semantic
coherence among members of the same verb class. Each verb class contains a set of
syntactic descriptions depicting the possible surface realisations of the argument
structure. Moreover, for each verb, VerbNet adds links to other lexical resources,
among them, WordNet and FrameNet. By way of illustration, the verb walk belongs
to the Run verb class (as in Levin’s classification) which includes 127 verbs (e.g.,
amble, hop, rush, stride). This group of verbs is characterised by the semantic roles
of an Agent, a Theme and a Location, and by a number of syntactic descriptions.
13
http://verbs.colorado.edu/~mpalmer/projects/verbnet.html
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4.5. The semantics of motion verbs
4.5.1. Introduction
In Chapter 3, we reviewed a vast amount of literature on motion events, especially
from a crosslinguistic perspective. In order to compare the encoding of motion events
across languages (e.g., in written and oral narratives), scholars found it necessary to
identify a number of conceptual categories as well as a range of linguistic devices
available in various languages. Thus, Slobin and his collaborators created a coding
system, which has not been published yet, though an outline can be found in Slobin
(2005). He offered a list of the semantic categories and linguistic elements which
were included in their coding system.
Here, our main concern is the semantic categories which were put forward.
Slobin and his collaborators took into consideration Talmy’s general semantic
components but further broke them into more fine-grained categories:
•
Figure: the moving object.
o Individual or group
o Type: human, animal, bird, etc
o Posture: change of posture at beginning or end of path
•
Ground: entity or entities that the Figure is moving in relation to.
o Source: initial location
o Goal: final location
o Milestone: location passed along path
o Linear substrate: bridge, etc
o Medium, terrain: field, river, etc
o Non-solid environment: air, fog, storm, darkness, etc
•
Path: the trajectory of the Figure.
o Direction of movement: forward, up, north, etc
o Deixis: direction with regard to viewpoint of narrator
o Contour: curved path, zigzag, etc
113
•
Manner: the way in which motion is performed.
o Motor pattern required to execute movement
o Force dynamics
o Rate
o Means of conveyance: by animal, car, airplane, etc
•
Cause: what originates the motion itself.
By way of illustration, the motion event depicted in the sentence Dori climbed out of
the tree may be analysed as consisting of a human-like creature directed in a
descending path, in a grasping manner, from a source defined as the tree to an
unspecified goal.
These categories are useful for exploring the semantics of motion verbs in
addition to motion events. However, as we will see in the next two sections,
crosslinguistic research on motion events has proposed even more specific manner
and path categories in order to capture semantic differences among verbs across
languages. Section 4.5.2 concentrates on manner verbs and provides a summary list
of fine-grained manner distinctions proposed by a number of scholars. Finally, in
Section 4.5.3, we offer a review of some studies which direct their research attention
to the semantics of path verbs, which have been often ignored in crosslinguistic
research on motion events. As with the manner component, fine-grained path
categories are proposed as well.
4.5.2. Manner verbs
Within the voluminous literature on motion events, there is an interesting
crosslinguistic study exploring manner of motion verbs as well as verbs from other
domains. Snell-Hornby (1983) compared and contrasted the semantics of English and
German motion verbs by grouping them into subclasses and then focusing on subtle
differences of meaning among verbs within each subclass. She summarises her
research as follows:
114
[L]exemes are examined in their semantic function as against that of their neighbours in the
same language, and at the same time as they compare with semantically similar lexemes in
the other language. (Snell-Hornby, 1983: 17)
In her analysis of 483 German and 617 English verbs, she proposed 4 major fields:
Human Behaviour, Movement and Position, Sounds, and Facial Expression and
Light. Each field comprises a range of structured subfields. Thus, the major field of
Movement and Position was subdivided into 3 subfields: (1) Walking and Running,
(2) Movement in air and water, and (3) Static and Negative; these subfields, in turn,
were further subdivided (Snell-Hornby, 1983: 80, 133, 142). Here, we provide the
divisions of (1) and (2), with examples of English verbs, as these fall within the
purview of this dissertation.
1. Walking and Running
a. Leisurely, aimless: wander, ramble, roam, rove, stray, hike, meander, stroll
b. Laborious: trudge, plod, tramp, stump
c. Clumsily, unsteadily: waddle, toddle, totter, dodder, stagger
d. Nimble, with energy: trot, trip, skip, frisk, caper, frolic, romp, hop, jump
2. Air and Water
a. Speed: race, rush, dash, whiz, zoom, sweep, hurtle
b. Flying, smoothness: soar, hover, float, drift, waft
c. Water: ripple, splash, flow, trickle, drip
d. Diving, falling: tumble, topple, pitch, plummet, plunge, dive
e. Throwing: hurl, fling, toss, dump
f. Turning: twiddle, twirl, spin, whirl, swirl
g. To and Fro: swing, wave, sway, shake, shiver, tremble
h. Sudden movement: jump, bounce, jolt
To illustrate her crosslinguistic semantic comparison of English and German motion
verbs, we summarise a small part of her analysis of the field Walking and Running
and subfield (a) Leisurely, aimless motion (Snell-Hornby, 1983: 133-134). In this
group of motion verbs, English amble, saunter and stroll along with German
115
bummeln, schlendern and spazieren focus on the leisurely attitude of the agent.
Amble focuses on easy pace and even movement; saunter emphasizes the agent’s
self-confident attitude, and stroll emphasizes unhurried, but not necessarily even
movements as it includes starts and stops. German schlendern can render all three
English verbs; bummeln focuses on slow tempo, pleasure and relaxed mood, with the
likehood of pauses, thus resembling stroll. Within this group, English wander and
German wandern are also included; these verbs indicate movement over a larger area
without a destination or route. However, German wandern also denotes walking
lengthy distances on foot as a healthy form of recreation, which is covered by
English ramble, which focuses on the pleasurable aspect, and hike, focussing on
walking as healthy but strenuous exercise.
Snell-Hornby compared manner verbs from two languages which belong to
the satellite-framed group. Her analysis dwells on subtleties of meaning which are
useful for understanding and discriminating the meaning of motion verbs within and
between the two languages. However, Snell-Hornby does not provide any list of
manner details which might serve as a basis for the comparison of motion verbs from
other languages.
As we saw in Chapter 3, Slobin (e.g., 2004, 2006) has observed that the
availability of an open verb slot in satellite-framed languages has led these languages
to develop a richer and more expressive manner verb lexicon than verb-framed
languages. In order to investigate this claim, the general tendency in crosslinguistic
research on motion events has been to use data from novels, oral elicited narratives,
and translations. Though a definitive count has not been undertaken, Slobin (2006a:
71) has recently estimated around several hundred manner verbs for languages within
the satellite-framed group and less than one hundred for verb-framed languages.
Accordingly, English is expected to have several hundred manner verbs whereas
Spanish less than one hundred.
Among the studies that compare and contrast manner verbs from both
satellite- and verb-framed languages, we offer a brief review of Slobin (2005) on
English, Serbo-Croatian, French and Turkish, Özçalişkan (2004) on English and
Turkish, and Cifuentes-Férez (2006) on English and Spanish. Slobin (2005)
compared translations of a chapter of Tolkien’s The Hobbit into some verb- and
116
satellite-framed languages. He found that the rich manner verb diversity of the
English text is matched by Serbo-Croatian (satellite-framed language), surpassed by
Russian (satellite-framed language), but reduced to a few manner verbs in French
and Turkish (verb-framed languages). Özçalişkan (2004: 81) compared manner verbs
taken from English and Turkish novels. She provided a summary table illustrating
the distribution of some English and Turkish verbs using the following specific
manner categories: rapid motion, forced motion, leisurely motion, smooth motion,
obstructed motion, furtive motion, manners of walking, manners of running, and
manners of jumping. She concluded that, for each manner category, English novelists
used a greater variety of manner verbs than Turkish ones. Much in the same vein,
Cifuentes-Férez (2006) compared manner verbs taken from an English novel and its
Spanish translation. She concluded that English carves up manner in a more finegrained fashion than Spanish; for example, she pointed out that Spanish does not
seem to have as many verbs encoding information about the Figure’s physical and
psychological state as English has, e.g., whether the Figure is tired as in traipse,
relaxed as in amble or stroll (Spanish ‘pasear’), injured as in limp (Spanish ‘cojear’)
or hobble.
Within the satellite-framed group of languages, Jovanovic & Martinovic-Zic
(2004) compared English and Serbo-Croatian 14 manner verbs elicited using the frog
stories, Kopecka (2006) examined English and Polish manner verbs, and DimitrovaVulchanova & Martínez (ms.) focused on English, Bulgarian and Norwegian manner
verbs.
Jovanovic & Martinovic-Zic (2004) found that Serbo-Croatian speakers
produced a greater variety of manner verbs than English speakers. Instead of
analysing manner details (e.g., rate, state of the Figure, etc) encoded in verbs, they
centred their analysis on the role that aspect (i.e., temporal contouring), which is
incorporated via morphology to the verb root, plays in the meaning of manner verbs.
For example, a set of manner verbs whose basic meaning is that of jumping or
hopping is full of aspectual nuances as (11) illustrates. Thus, the greater variety of
manner verbs in Serbo-Croatian than in English seemed to be due to aspectual
notions expressed in manner verbs. On the whole, they concluded that aspect has
14
See Filipović (2007) for a detailed account on the lexicalization of motion in Serbo-Croatian.
117
implications for manner of movement in Serbo-Croatian whereas its role is not
prominent in English.
(11)
Serbo-Croatian set of manner verbs (taken from Jovanovic & Martinovic-Zic
(2004: 222)
a. skakati ‘jump’
b. poskoĉiti ‘hop, do a quick, short jump upward’
c. skakutati ‘hop energically and repeatedly’
d. pre-skakati ‘jump over’
Kopecka (2006) explored the expression of motion in English and Polish.
Unlike the research we have just reviewed, she used monolingual and bilingual
dictionaries as the source for her data. Overall, she found three main diverging points
in the linguistic expression of motion events between English and Polish. Firstly, her
data suggested that English makes more fine-grained semantic distinctions in verbs
than does Polish; for example, English has three different manner verbs lexicalising
contact 15 (glide, slide, slither) whereas Polish has only one (ślizgać sie).
Furthermore, she observed that English conflates more manner details in the verb
than Polish; English verbs like amble are translated into Polish by periphrastic
expressions such as iść spokojnym krokiem ‘to walk with a slow step’. Secondly, she
noticed that English seems to have conventionalised the use of some nouns as motion
verbs, more precisely, verbs lexicalising vehicles such as bicycle and skate, whereas
Polish has not. Thirdly, in English, different types of verbs including sound emission
verbs can combine with path satellites to express motion events, as in (12), whereas
in Polish this type of motion construction 16 is much more restricted.
15
Narasimham (2003: 135) considers contact, i.e., friction between the Figure and the Ground, as a
manner component relevant for exploring crosslinguistic differences in the manner verb lexicon.
16
Unlike other satellite-framed languages, English allows a great flexibility as to the types of verbs
which can combine with path satellites to express motion events. See Narasimham (2003) and
Narasimhan et al (2006) for a discussion of motion constructions and their productivity across two
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(12)
Sound emission verbs (taken from Goldberg & Jackendoff, 2004)
a. The wagon creaked down the road.
b. The bullets whistled past the house.
Dimitrova-Vulchanova & Martínez (ms.) aimed at unveiling the sort of
manner details which are lexicalised in English, Bulgarian and Norwegian (three
satellite-framed languages). In their study, they asked English, Bulgarian and
Norwegian speakers to name, using only verbs, a range of motion events which
differed in a number of ways: whether the Figure was or was not human, direction of
motion, speed, path-shape, etc. For example, they found that for crawling events,
English and Norwegian manner verbs are sensitive to the species characterisation of
the Figure, while Bulgarian crawling verbs refers to both human and non-human
Figures. Thus, English possesses crawl for humans and more specialised verbs which
are used for snakes, snails and insects (e.g., wind, slither, slide, creep), and
Norwegian uses krabbe for human crawling, kryppe for insects, and aale seg for
snakes. Word-Allbritton (2004) also reported this manner verb sensitivity to the
Figure’s characteristics in Turkmen, a verb-framed language spoken in
Turkmenistan. In Turkmen, birds, insects and planes ug ‘fly’ but people do not, while
in English, the verb fly applies to a wide range of Figures (human, animal, objects,
etc.) Thus, it seems that Manner in Turkmen is closely connected to the physical
characteristics of the Figure; specific manners of motion may be uniquely associated
with certain Figures. Word-Allbritton concluded that verb-framed languages do not
seem to generalise the use of manner verbs with Figures other than those for whom
they express the main or unique Manner of motion.
One of the problems that arises from research on motion events is that the
category of Manner is too general; as we have seen above, it includes a wide range of
information: speed of motion, psychological states (anger, tiredness), basic
locomotive abilities (walk, run, jump, etc), means of conveyance or vehicle, contact,
etc. In an attempt to shed light on the sort of specific manner details which are
satellite-framed languages (English, Polish), and three verb-framed languages (Hindi, Turkish and
French).
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encoded in verbs and/or in other lexical items, Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2004b, 2006a),
Özçalişkan (2004), Slobin (2000, 2005), and many others, have subdivided Manner
into different semantic categories. Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2006a) provided a summary
list of fine-grained manner categories which have been proposed for the analysis of
motion verbs 17 :
•
Motor pattern: basic locomotive abilities
o Ways of walking
o Ways of running
o Ways of jumping
o Ways of swimming
o Ways of flying
•
Energy: stamina required for performing motion; e.g. throw, fling, churn
•
Forced motion: motion requires an effort to be performed; e.g. drag, trudge
•
Furtive motion: hidden purpose or secretive motion; e.g. crawl, creep, sneak
•
Obstructed motion: there is some impediment or obstacle for motion; e.g.
stumble, trip
•
Smooth motion: motion flows, there is no obstacle; e.g., glide, slide
•
Leisurely motion: motion for pleasure; e.g., hike, trek
•
No aim in motion: no special purpose; e.g., roam, saunter
•
Violent motion: e.g., charge, dash
•
Unsteady motion: unbalanced motion; e.g., totter, stagger
•
Rate: speed of motion (fast or slow rate; increasing or decreasing speed); e.g.,
hurry, dash, zoom
•
State of Figure: physical or psychological state; e.g., limp, traipse, stroll,
swagger
In addition, Nikanne & van der Zee (2004) and Dimitrova-Vulchanova & Martínez
(ms.) identified a further manner parameter, namely, global or local path-shape as
expressed in the verbs curve and zig-zag. In contrast, path-shape is regarded as a path
17
She uses these manner categories in her analysis of Basque sound symbolic expressions for motion.
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parameter by other scholars (e.g., Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 2006a; Slobin, 2005; Talmy,
2000b).
The manner categories or parameters are not mutually exclusive, that is, a
verb can encode more than one fine-grained manner detail. For example, the English
verb jog could be analysed as motor pattern-run and slow rate of motion; stagger as
motor pattern-walk and unsteady motion, etc. Furthermore, it is important to remark
that Manner might be conflated together with Path in the verb root, as in the verb
soar, which could be analysed as motor pattern-fly, fast rate of motion and upwards
path of motion.
When exploring the semantics of motion verbs, more often than not scholars
have found it hard to decide whether Manner alone or Manner plus Path are encoded
in motion verbs. Authors frequently differed in their semantic analyses of motion
verbs and in what they count as manner and path verbs. By way of illustration, let us
consider how Wälchli (ms.) and Özçalişkan (2004) classified some motion verbs. On
the one hand, Wälchli (ms.) considered that there are intermediate verbs which
conflate both Manner and Path. These intermediate cases are manner verbs with a
preferred direction, such as fall and sink (usually with downwards motion), flee
(usually with motion away from a location), climb 18 and soar (usually with upwards
motion). On the other, Özçalişkan (2004) categorised verbs conflating Manner and
Path (that is, Wälchli’s intermediate verbs) as manner verbs. Within the manner
group, she also included verbs conflating Manner and Ground, such as fly (Ground:
air), swim and sink (Ground: water). Unlike Wälchli’s analysis, Özçalişkan analyses
sink as a verb conflating Manner and Ground, but not Path (downwards motion).
At least two explanations might be put forward in order to account for the
different positions taken up by scholars’ analyses of motion verbs. On the one hand,
18
According to Fillmore (1982: 32-33) and Jackendoff (1985: 279, 2002), English climb is a cluster
concept, that is, there are two conditions relevant for a situation to count as an instance of climbling:
(1) effortful clambering movement (with use of limbs), and (2) upwards direction. However, these two
factors do not need to be simultaneous, and neither is necessary, but either is sufficient. For example,
in English a human can climb up and down, but a snake can climb up (upward direction condition is
met), but not down (because the limbs supporting condition and the upward direction conditions are
not being met).
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since manner verbs with a preferred direction (e.g., soar, climb, upwards motion) can
combine with different path satellites (e.g., soar up and down, climb to, climb across,
climb down), it seems that path information, rather than residing in the verb, is
relegated to satellites. Therefore, it might be argued that these manner verbs are
devoid of the Path component. On the other, the fact that some manner verbs are
frequently associated with certain paths suggests that the meaning of those manner
verbs imply those paths; in other words, both Manner and Path are thought to be
conflated in the verb. Thus, soar could be said to denote a quick or fast rate in the
motion (Manner) plus an upwards trajectory (Path); climb as encoding the use of
one’s legs and/or hands (Manner) in order to go up or onto something (Path).
All in all, crosslinguistic research exploring manner verbs has zoomed into
the features which make up Manner in order to capture fine-grained semantic
differences lexicalised in verbs across languages. As has been shown, the Manner
component can be decomposed into a number of independent categories pertaining to
various aspects of the motion scene.
4.5.3. Path verbs
Despite of the importance of Path in the motion event, the emphasis of the analysis
of motion verbs has usually been on the Manner of motion (cf. Ibarretxe-Antuñano,
2003b; Sivonen, 2005). So, it is no exaggeration to state that both the semantic
component of Path and path verbs themselves demand an investigation.
In order to better understand the differences among path verbs, both within
and between languages, it is useful to start by pointing out the distinct components
which constitute this element. According to Talmy (2000b: 53-56), the three main
components of Path are the Vector, the Conformation, and the Deictic 19 :
1. The Vector refers to the direction of motion of the Figure with respect to the
Ground, which can be a source, a milestone or a goal; thus, Vector can denote
19
According to Talmy (2000b: 53), Path in spoken languages consists of three components (Vector,
Conformation and Deixis), whereas in sign languages two other components are added: Contour and
Direction.
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motion from a source (e.g., move from), past or along a milestone (e.g., move along,
via), and to or towards a goal (e.g., move to, towards).
2. The Conformation is related to the geometry of Grounds, which can be
conceptualised as containers (e.g., move into, out of), surfaces (e.g., on), points (e.g.,
past), etc.
3. The Deictic component is clearly defined by Talmy (2000b: 56) as follows: ‘[t]he
Deictic component of Path typically has only the two member notions toward the
speaker and in direction other than toward the speaker’.
The three Path components can cooccur. If we consider example (13), the English
satellite into combines both Vector and Conformation; the Figure reached its goal or
endpoint of motion, which is a container. In (14), the Spanish verb salir denotes
motion from a point inside a container, and thus, it conflates Vector and
Conformation. The Spanish preposition de ‘from’ just encodes the Vector (i.e., from
a source)
(13)
The ball rolled into the box
(14)
Pedro salió de casa
Lit. Peter exited from home
Talmy pointed out than in Spanish path verbs, Conformation and Deixis cannot be
conflated together. Thus, there are Deictic verbs (e.g., venir ‘come’, ir ‘go’) on the
one hand, and Conformation plus Vector verbs (e.g., entrar ‘enter’, salir ‘exit’) on
the other.
Slobin (in press) proposed a fourth component, Earth-grid Displacement.
This component relates direction of motion to earth-based geometry: north-southeast-west, up-down, and other absolute coordinates (upstream, downstream). For
example, the Spanish verbs ascender ‘ascend’ and descender ‘descend’ denote
motion along the vertical axis; Vietnamese and other languages have verbs for ‘go
upstream’ and ‘go downstream’.
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Narasimhan (2003: 136) explored the English and Hindi path verb lexicon
taking as a starting point Talmy’s Path components. She identified the following Path
components in Hindi and English verbs of motion:
a.
Complex endpoint: e.g., enter. It encodes features of the endpoint, e.g.,
whether it is an enclosure.
b.
Complex source-point: e.g., emerge, exit.
c.
Simple endpoint: e.g., reach, arrive.
d.
Simple potential endpoint: e.g., approach, near, advance.
e.
Simple source-point: e.g., leave, depart.
f.
Midpoint: e.g., pass.
g.
Direction: e.g., climb, ascend, rise, descend.
h.
Deixis: e.g., come, go.
Narasimham’s components (a) - (f) are specific formulations of Talmy’s Vector and
Conformation. For example, complex endpoint is the same as Vector (towards a goal,
which is the endpoint of motion) and Conformation (the Ground is an enclosure or
volume). Components (g) and (h) pertain to Earth-grid Displacement and to the
Deictic component respectively.
In general, Vector, Conformation, Deixis and Earth-grid Displacement should
be seen as Path components which are useful for exploring crosslinguistic differences
in the type of path information expressed in path verbs. Besides these, scholars have
proposed other ways to further analyse path verbs, which may equally serve the same
purposes.
Wälchli (2001) offered a more fine-grained typology of path verbs; more
precisely, he proposed 6 types of paths or cardinal kinds of displacement (in his
terminology), which he labelled with the help of Latin prepositions:
a.
AD = the Figure goes to the Ground
b.
IN = the Figure goes into the Ground
c.
SUPER = the Figure goes onto the Ground
d.
AB = the Figure comes away from the Ground
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e.
EX = the Figure comes out of the Ground
f.
DE = the Figure comes down from the Ground
Berthele (2004) used Wälchli’s types of paths with some modifications. In
particular, in (c) and (f), Wälchli seemed to mix displacement along the vertical axis
and a specified movement towards (onto) or away (down from) a Ground. According
to Berthele (2004: 99), this association is avoidable since a motion verb coding a
downward path can be followed by a complement denoting either the source, as in
(15), or the goal of motion, as in (16).
(15)
The boy falls from the tree
(16)
The boy falls onto the ground
Thus, Berthele proposed that paths be categorised without specifying the source or
goal in the vertical dimension (see his classification below). Moreover, unlike
Wälchli’s list which used the deictic verbs go and come, Berthele decided to use the
verb displace in order to avoid reference to an unnecessary deictic centre. Here is his
reformulation:
a.
AD = the Figure displaces to the Ground
b.
IN = the Figure displaces into the Ground
c.
SUPER = the Figure displaces up
d.
AB = the Figure displaces away from the Ground
e.
EX = the Figure displaces out of the Ground
f.
DE = the Figure displaces down
In a recent unpublished manuscript, Wälchli (ms.) proposed 5 basic domains
for Path: ENTER, EXIT, ASCEND, DESCEND, and PASS/CROSS. His new proposal
leaves out the AD type of path (i.e., the Figure goes to the Ground), but incorporates
the notion of a Figure going past or crossing the Ground. Moreover, he overcomes
the limitations of his earlier classification (Wälchli, 2001).
On the whole, to categorise path verbs in terms of types of paths or domains
seems to be a useful tool for crosslinguistic analyses as well. The types of paths
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which have been proposed encompass Talmy’s Vector, Conformation and Deixis,
and Slobin’s Earth-grid Displacement (vertical and horizontal axis). For instance,
ascend might be categorised as a SUPER verb (i.e., the Figure displaces up) or as a
verb encoding Earth-grid Displacement (i.e., vertical axis: up); leave as an AB verb
(i.e., the Figure displaces away from the Ground) or as a verb encoding Deixis (i.e.,
motion away from the deictic center). In contrast, the domains of Path later proposed
by Wälchli, i.e., ENTER, EXIT, ASCEND, DESCEND, and PASS/CROSS, exclude the
deictic component of Path.
Finally, it has also been suggested that the path verb lexicon may be closedended (i.e., limited in the sorts of notions it can convey) and that languages,
regardless of typological status, may have comparable path verb lexicons. Özçalişkan
(2004) found that English and Turkish present a similar number of path verbs, more
concretely, 20 types for English and 24 types for Turkish. She claimed that the
manner verb lexicon is open ended (i.e., open to new additions, cf. Slobin, 2003,
2006), but the path verb lexicon ‘forms a closed lexical category that does not
provide many options for elaboration’ (Özçalişkan, 2004: 85). Though motion
research data points in that direction, the claim of comparable size of path verb
lexicons across languages has not yet been addressed.
4.6. Summary
Motion verbs have been the subject of a great deal of research from different
theoretical frameworks because they present interesting semantic and syntactic
characteristics. Even though motion verbs are considered to be a coherent semantic
class, this chapter shows how motion verbs encode different types of semantic
information, and also display different syntactic behaviours.
Sections 4.2 and 4.3 reviewed a number of approaches to grammar centred on
the verb lexicon: the Syntax-Semantics Interface and the Functional-Lexematic
model.
The general label ‘the Syntax-Semantic Interface’ was given to those
theories which assume that argument structure is largely predictable from the
meanings of verbs, and that verbs with similar meanings display similar syntactic
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behaviour. Scholars working within the Functional-Lexematic model adopted a more
semantically-oriented approach to the study of motion verb lexicons. Both
frameworks have provided interesting insights into the semantic and syntactic nature
of motion verbs, and different classes of motion verbs are proposed in terms of these
characteristics. Unlike scholars concerned with the syntax-semantics interface, who
identify motion verb classes based on their syntactic behaviour, scholars within the
Functional-Lexematic paradigm do take semantics rather than syntax as starting
point for their classifications of motion verbs. Nevertheless, they also claim that
motion verbs within the same class not only share semantic content but also exhibit
similar syntactic behaviour. Overall, the general tendency for analysing motion verbs
has been to separate path verbs from manner verbs. On the one hand, path verbs are
often divided into classes in terms of (1) the trajectories they describe and (2)
whether or not they denote an achieved location/endpoint. Manner verbs, on the
other hand, are normally sorted into two groups: manner verbs implying translational
motion (e.g., walk, run) and manner verbs denoting self-contained motion (e.g.,
shiver, tremble, spin, twirl).
Section 4.4 offered a summary of some online lexical databases available for
English and Spanish; they provide different analyses of motion verbs, which range
from more syntactically-oriented approaches to more semantically-oriented ones.
These online databases are valuable tools for exploring the semantics and syntax of
motion for at least four reasons: (1) they all allow for unlimited searches with their
browsers; (2) semantic and syntactic information is retrieved in a few seconds and
fully displayed on the screen; (3) Adesse and FrameNet are based on corpora and
thus, use real language, and (4) Adesse, FrameNet and WordNet act as both
dictionaries and thesauri and, thus, a particular motion verb is both defined and
presented in relation to other verbs within the same class, frame, or synset.
Section 4.5 delved into the semantics of motion verbs, leaving syntactic
considerations aside. In this section, research on motion events, with particular
attention to the Manner and Path components, has been reviewed. Manner as a
general semantic category is useful in the description of lexicalisation patterns for
motion; specifically when Manner is contrasted with Path. Furthermore, as has been
shown in section 4.5.2, crosslinguistic research exploring manner verbs have
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concentrated on zooming into the features which make up Manner in order to capture
fine-grained semantic differences lexicalised in verbs. Thus, it has been found that
the Manner component can be decomposed into a number of independent parameters
which pertain to various aspects of the motion scene: forced motion, smooth motion,
rate of motion, state of the Figure, etc. In contrast, Path of motion has not received as
much research attention. Section 4.5.3 showed that Path may also be subdivided into
four basic components (Vector, Conformation, Deixis and Earth-grid Displacement)
which serve the purpose of exploring what sorts of path notions are encoded in path
verbs. Crosslinguistic research, moreover, suggests that path verbs may be
categorised in terms of basic types of paths or domains. Last but not least, it has been
suggested that unlike the manner verb lexicon, which seems to be open to new
additions, the path verb lexicon might be closed-ended, and that languages from both
typological groups might have path verb lexicons which are comparable in size.
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CHAPTER 5
THE SEMANTICS OF THE ENGLISH AND THE SPANISH
MOTION VERB LEXICONS
5.1. Introduction
5.2.1. Aims
5.2.2. Corpus of motion verbs
5.2.3. Methodology
5.2.4. Some problems and limitations
5.3. General distribution: verb conflations
5.3.1. English verbs
5.3.2. Spanish verbs
5.3.3. Discussion and conclusions
5.4. Path verbs
5.4.1. English path verbs
5.4.2. Spanish path verbs
5.5. Manner verbs
5.5.1. English manner verbs
5.5.2. Spanish manner verbs
5.6. Conclusions
CHAPTER 5. THE SEMANTICS OF THE ENGLISH AND THE SPANISH MOTION VERB LEXICONS
5.1. Introduction
This chapter sets out to explore the semantic nature of the English and the Spanish
motion verb lexicons and to offer a contrastive account with special attention to the
Path and Manner dimensions of motion. Despite the bulk of research on the linguistic
expression of motion events in English and in Spanish, and the resulting claims about
the semantics of their verbs, hardly any research has been devoted to an in-depth
analysis of their motion verb lexicons, and a comparative study is, to our knowledge,
nonexistent. As has been stated in previous chapters, Slobin (1997: 459) pointed out
that languages seem to have a ‘two-tiered’ lexicon of manner-of-motion verbs 1 : (1) a
general one, or superordinate level, represented by everyday verbs such as walk, run,
jump, fly, etc.; and (2) a more specific and expressive level consisting of different
ways of walking, such as stroll, wander, or shuffle; different ways of running such as
sprint or jog, etc. English possesses a very extensive and elaborated second level. In
contrast, in Spanish the manner-of-motion verb lexicon is not as rich and mainly
consists of general manner-of-motion verbs. Though a definitive count has not been
undertaken, Slobin (2006: 71) estimated around several hundred manner-of-motion
verbs for English and less than one hundred for Spanish. Moreover, in an attempt to
shed light on the sort of specific manner details which are encoded in verbs and/or in
other lexical items, scholars have subdivided Manner into different semantic
categories. In terms of path verbs, it was pointed out in Chapter 4 that Özçalişkan
(2004: 85) claimed that path verb lexicon of both satellite- and verb-framed
languages ‘form a closed lexical category that does not provide many options for
elaboration’. Thus, she hypothesised that both satellite-framed and verb-framed
languages seem to possess approximately the same number of path verbs. However,
her claim has not been fully addressed by research yet.
The present chapter aims at bridging the gap in the existing literature by
examining a substantial set of motion verbs in English and Spanish: specifically, we
1
This does not seem to be only specific to motion verbs but also to verbs from other semantic fields,
such as verbs of seeing (with see and look at the superordinate level and stare, gaze, glance, gape, etc.
at the specific level); verbs of laughing or smiling (with guffaw, smirk, grin, etc at the second level),
verbs of saying, verbs of hearing, etc. However, research is needed to test whether languages have
these two levels for most semantic fields or just for some of them.
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will be focussing on self-agentive and non-agentive motion verbs (Talmy, 2000b:
28), that is, intransitive motion verbs normally found in the construction ‘Figure +
Motion Verb’. Our research consists of three parts: first, we concentrate on the sort
of general semantic components which are encoded in these motion verbs; second,
we delve into the sorts of path notions expressed in verbs, and third, we zoom in to
the type of fine-grained manner details which are lexicalised in verbs. Moreover, our
investigation intends to compare and contraste English and Spanish motion verb
lexicons and to address two general research questions: (1) the question of whether
English and Spanish have path verb lexicons which are comparable quantitatively
(i.e., a similar number of verbs) as well as qualitatively (i.e., both path verb lexicons
display similar sorts of path information) and (2) the question of whether English and
Spanish manner verbs encode comparable manner details despite the fact that
English manner-of-motion verbs outnumber those of Spanish.
In section 5.2, our aims, research questions, corpus and methodology are fully
described. Sections 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5 delve into the analysis of English and Spanish
motion verbs. In section 5.3, the general distribution of verbs in terms of the general
semantic components that they encode is presented. Section 5.4 focuses on path
verbs and zooms in to the sorts of path notions which seem to be typically expressed
in these languages. Next, section 5.5 considers the semantic nature of manner verbs
in each language and the sort of manner information which seems to be
characteristically lexicalised in these languages. Within each section, we first deal
with English motion verbs, then with Spanish motion verbs, and finally, we compare
and contrast the two languages. Section 5.6 answers each one of the research
questions addressed throughout the chapter and sums up the main conclusions drawn
from our analysis.
5.2.1. Aims
The primary goal of this chapter is to provide a systematic and detailed account of
the semantics of both the English and the Spanish motion verb lexicons, and to
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compare and contrast them. Our starting point is Talmy’s general semantic
components for motion, but our analysis looks into the broad categories of Path and
Manner so as to search for more subtle differences in the motion lexicon, which
would enable us to (a) better understand how the lexicon for motion is
organised/distributed in these two languages, and (b) formulate hypotheses for
further psycholinguistic research (some of which will be addressed in Chapter 6).
The research questions that guide our semantic analysis are the following
ones:
1. Which semantic notions are conflated in English and Spanish motion verbs?
This research question aims at exploring which sorts of conflations are generally
found in English and Spanish motion verbs and which are not. Beyond the pathconflating and the manner-conflating verb types, other lexicalisation patterns are
expected to be found: Motion + Figure in Co-Motion (e.g., acompañar and
accompany, in which several figures go together), Motion + Ground (e.g., atajar ‘to
go somewhere by taking a shortcut’, costear ‘to sail or move along the coast’),
Motion + Path + Ground (e.g., embarcar ‘to go on board’, embark ‘to go on board’,
emigrate ‘to leave one’s country’, land ‘down onto the ground’), Motion + Path +
Ground + Manner (e.g., ford ‘to cross a river by wading, walking); etc.
2. Do the two languages have comparable path verb lexicons?
2.1. Are the two path lexicons comparable in size?
2.2. Are the two path lexicons comparable in their semantic nature?
2.2.1. What sorts of path notions are typically lexicalised in English?
2.2.2. What sorts of path notions are typically lexicalised in Spanish?
We intend to test Özçalişcan’s claim that path verb lexicons of satellite- and verbframed languages are comparable in size. Our research attention is directed to the
semantics of English and Spanish path verbs to unveil both crosslinguistic
similarities and differences. It might be the case that English path verbs of Latin
origin (e.g., enter, ascend, descend, arrive, etc) look like Spanish path verbs sharing
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the same etymology (e.g., entrar, ascender, descender, arrivar, etc) and, thus,
express the same sorts of path information. It could be expected, however, that there
exist path verbs of a different semantic nature in the Spanish lexicon; for instance,
verbs whose etymological origin is that of a preposition (encoding Path) plus an
adverb: adentrarse ‘to go into’ = a + dentro (‘inside’), from Latin deintro;
acercarse ‘to bring nearer to’= a + cerca (‘near’), from Latin, circa ‘around’. In
general, by contrasting the English and the Spanish path verb lexicons both
quantitatively and qualitatively we mean to give path verbs the research attention
they deserve.
3. Do both languages lexicalise similar manner-of-motion information in verbs?
3.1. What sorts of manner details are typically lexicalised in English?
3.2. What sorts of manner details are typically lexicalised in Spanish?
3.3. Does English exhibit a greater degree of manner granularity in all
subdomains of motion? If not, in which suddomain(s) does Spanish exhibit a
greater degree of manner granularity?
Crosslinguistic research has suggested that English manner verbs outnumber those of
Spanish and that they encode much finer manner information. Thus, our endeavour is
also to investigate which types of fine-grained manner information are lexicalised in
both lexicons. Furthermore, we intend to find out which types of manner information
are more productively expressed in verbs. Research has shown that English allows a
great flexibility as to the types of verbs which can combine with path satellites to
express motion events, such as sound emission verbs. In addition, English can use
vehicle names and dance names as motion verbs. Finally, our research seeks to find
out (a) whether the English manner verb lexicon is equally rich and varied for all
subdomains of motion with which we have dealt (i.e., human and animal locomotion,
motion of objects or inanimates, motion in/on vehicles, etc), and if not, (b) whether
the Spanish manner verb lexicon might be richer than the English for some particular
subdomains.
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5.2.2. Corpus of motion verbs
Our corpus consists of 376 English motion verbs and 257 Spanish motion verbs. The
motion verbs under the scope of the present investigation include general motion
verbs (i.e., no specific semantic information apart from the Motion component, such
as, the Spanish verbs moverse and menearse ‘to move oneself’, and English move),
accompany verbs (e.g., escoltar ‘to escort’, guiar ‘to guide’, escort, guide, lead), and
path verbs (e.g., entrar ‘enter’, salir ‘exit’, arrive, come, depart, enter, exit, go) as
well as manner verbs. Manner verbs pertain to (a) human and animal locomotion
(e.g., andar ‘walk’, correr ‘run’, saltar ‘jump’, walk, run, fly, hop, pronk, slither),
(b) motion using a vehicle (e.g., conducir ‘to drive’, navegar ‘to navigate’, bike,
canoe, ferry, ship), (c) motion while dancing (e.g., bailotear ‘a careless way of
dancing’, waltz, foxtrot, twist), (d) motion of physical objects or inanimate entities
(e.g., rodar ‘roll’, oscilar ‘oscillate’, revolve, roll, spin, shake, swing) and (e) change
of posture (acostarse ‘to lay oneself down’, levantarse ‘to stand up’, arquearse ‘to
bend oneself’, kneel, lean, recline, twist).
Berthele (2004: 108-109) states that posture verbs are ‘manner of position’
verbs as they encode ‘configurational information about the dimensions and the
vertical and the horizontal orientation of the Figure’. However, we decided to count
posture verbs in our corpus as they express motion which is internal to the Figure
(i.e., self-contained motion). In other words, the Figure moves its body by changing
its posture or orientation though it does not move to a different location (i.e.,
translational motion). Talmy (2000b) widens the category Posture to include
‘postures or orientations that are assumed by the human body or by objects treated
as comparable to the body’ [emphasis ours]. Thus, inanimate objects can be Figures
of posture verbs as well. However, the semantic natures of posture verbs in English
and in Spanish are different. As Talmy (2000b: 80) remarks, English posture verbs
(lie, sit, stand, lean, kneel, squat, crouch, etc) refer to ‘being in a state’. These verbs
must be augmented by a satellite to denote getting into a posture (e.g., lie down,
kneel down). In the case of lie, it must be further augmented by an agentive
derivation (lay down) to refer to putting things into the lying posture. In contrast,
Spanish lexicalises posture notions in the agentive ‘putting into a state’ type (i.e.,
transitive or caused motion, such as acostar, levantar). To express the other types,
134
grammatical elements are used, for example, estar acostado ‘be in lying posture’ for
the stative; acostarse includes the reflexive morpheme ‘se’ to get the meaning of
getting into a posture (‘to lie down’). On the whole, the reflexive pronoun ‘se’ makes
an agentive posture motion verb a self-agentive one.
Manner of motion verbs mostly depict self-agentive motion and non-agentive
motion (Talmy, 2000b). Self-agentive verbs are mainly intransitive verbs which
typically denote that the Figure has control over its motion, that is to say, there is no
external agent causing its motion:
(1)
a. He walked/ran/limped down the hall
b. Andó/corrió/cojeó por el pasillo
On the other hand, non-agentive verbs are also intransitive verbs, but their Figures
are inanimate entities, as in (2). Non-agentive motion typically refers to motion
where the Figure does not necessarily have direct control over its motion (Levin,
1993: 264-265; Morimoto, 2001: 46-47).
(2)
a. The ball slid/rolled/bounced
b. La pelota se deslizó/rodó/botó
Generally speaking, the motion verbs which fall within the scope of this
dissertation are those which can be found in the intransitive construction ‘Figure
(subject) + Motion Verb’ and in the transitive constructions ‘Figure (subject) +
Motion Verb + Ground (direct object)’, as in (3), and ‘Figure + Motion Verb +
Figures in Co-Motion’ (especially for accompany verbs), as in (4). Transitive motion
verbs denoting caused motion do not fall within the purview of the present work.
(3)
a. We left home
b. Abandonamos la casa
(4)
a. He accompanied/guided Mary
b. Acompañó/guió a María
135
In order to compile our corpus of motion verbs, we made use of available
verb lists in the existing literature, monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, and
thesauri. Within the literature on English motion verbs, we consulted Levin &
Rappaport-Hovav (1992), Levin (1993) and Snell-Hornby (1983). Also, the
following English dictionaries and thesauri were employed:
•
Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
•
Cambridge
Advanced
Learner’s
Dictionary,
CD-Rom
version
1.1.
Cambridge University Press. 2003 (CALD)
•
Cambridge Klett Compact, CD-Rom version 1.0b. Cambridge University
Press. 2002 (CKC)
•
Merriam-Webster Online, available at http://www.merriam-webster.com/
(MW)
•
The Free Dictionary, (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dictionary.htm)
(TFD)
•
Longman Language Activator. Pearson Education. 2002 (LLA)
•
Roget’s thesaurus of English words and phrases (RTE), available at
http://poets.notredame.ac.jp/Roget/
To gather our corpus of Spanish motion verbs, Cifuentes Honrubia 2 (1999)
and Morimoto (2001) were the sources within the literature on Spanish motion verbs.
In addition, Spanish motion verbs were taken from the following monolingual
dictionaries:
•
Diccionario de uso del Español. María Moliner, CD-Rom version 2.0,
Gredos. 2001. (DUE)
•
Diccionario de la lengua española. Real Academia Española, 21st edition.
Espasa Calpe. 1992. (DRAE)
2
I am grateful to José Luis Cifuentes Honrubia for sending me the full manuscript of his 1999 book,
Sintáxis y Semántica del Movimiento, as it is currently out of print.
136
5.2.3. Methodology
Motion verbs in English and Spanish were included in two separate Excel sheets (see
Appendices 1 and 2). Ten columns were created. The first listed the motion verbs in
alphabetical order, and English translations were provided for each Spanish motion
verb. The second column showed whether the verb expresses translational motion or
self-contained motion (Talmy, 2000b: 35). As has been stated in previous chapters,
translational motion (i.e., change of the Figure’s overall location) is conveyed
primarily by path verbs but also by some manner verbs. More specifically, manner
verbs such as walk, tiptoe, jog and run (e.g., Morimoto, 2001) imply the Figure’s
change of location though the path of motion remains unspecified. In contrast, selfcontained motion is, in most cases, linked to non-agentive manner verbs (i.e., motion
of inanimate entities), which generally express oscillation, rotation, wiggling,
trembling, etc, such as revolve, roll, rotate, swing, sway, and shake. In addition, selfcontained motion is linked to posture verbs, which denote motion of a Figure which
remains in its overall location.
The third column coded whether each motion verb can also denote agentive
motion (henceforth AM), that is, an agent that causes the Figure to move:
(5)
He plunged his son into the swimming pool
(6)
He slid/rolled/bounced the ball into the house
By way of illustration, the self-agentive verb plunge is an intransitive verb which
denotes ‘to move or fall suddenly and often a long way forward, down or into
something’ (CALD); however, it can be used transitively meaning ‘to cause someone
or something to do so’ (CALD) 3 . Thus, in the third column, we coded whether verbs
in our corpus can display agentive motion (caused motion).
3
These definitions are drawn from Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (henceforth, CALD).
137
The fourth column coded the general semantic components that were
conflated in each verb. A motion verb can encode one or more of the following
semantic elements 4 :
•
Figure: the moving object
•
Ground: the entity or entities that the Figure is moving in relation to
•
Motion: the presence of motion per se
•
Path: the trajectory of the Figure
•
Manner: the way in which motion is performed
•
Cause: what originates the motion itself
For example, arrive conflates Motion and Path, walk conflates Motion and Manner,
and blow conflates Motion and Cause (i.e., current of air or wind). Besides the Coevent relations of Manner and Cause, we took into account whether the verbs under
the scope of this dissertation encoded any other co-event relation (Talmy, 2000b: 4247). As motion verbs inherently encode the Motion component, we deliberately
avoided its constant repetition throughout the analysis of verbs in the spreadsheet.
Next, in the fifth column, we counted the number of conflated elements in
each motion verb. For example, if a verb encodes Path besides Motion, then we
coded ‘1’; if a verb conflates Path and Manner besides Motion, then we coded ‘2’,
and so on. The sixth and seventh columns exhibit the sorts of path notions and types
of paths, if any, conveyed by motion verbs and the manner details.
In terms of the Path component of motion, the following notions were taken
into account:
•
‘Vector’: refers to the departure (from), traversal (via, along) or arrival
(toward) of a Figure in relation to the Ground.
•
‘Conformation’: is linked to the geometry of the Ground, whether it is a
container (into, out of), a surface (onto), etc.
4
See Chapter 2, Section 2.2.2, for a comprehensive account on the basic semantic components of a
motion event and the types of relations between the main event and the co-event, and Section 2.2.3 for
the different lexicalisation patterns which have been identified across languages.
138
•
‘Deixis’: direction toward or away from the speaker; e.g., ir ‘to go’, venir ‘to
come’, come, go.
•
‘Earth-based orientation’ 5 : up-down orientation, north-south-east-west, etc.
All these path notions may be expressed by the types of path which are listed next.
The reader should note that G stands for Ground:
•
Types of Path 6 :
o To/towards G (arrival, endpoint): alcanzar ‘to reach’, reach, arrive
o Away from G (departure, source): abandonar ‘to abandon’, abandon,
depart
o Into G (container): entrar ‘to enter’, inmigrar ‘to immigrate’, enter,
immigrate
o Out of G (container): salir ‘to exit’, exit
o Up/onto G - Upwards: ascender, subir ‘to ascend’, embark, mount, scale
o Down /down from G - Downwards: descender ‘to descend’, caerse ‘to
fall down’, descend, sink, fall
o Pass/cross G (traversal, milestone): cruzar ‘to cross’, pasar ‘to pass’,
traverse, pass, cross
o Closer to G: acercarse, arrimarse ‘to move closer to G’
o Forwards: avanzar ‘to advance’, advance
o Back to G/ Backwards: desandar, retroceder ‘to walk/go backwards’,
back
o Change direction: desviar (se) ‘to divert’, virar ‘to tack’, swerve
o Multiple directions from a unique start: esparcir, dispersarse ‘to scatter’
5
Slobin (in press) adds this fourth distinction to Talmy’s subcomponents of Path (Vector,
Conformation and Deixis). The notion ‘Earth-based orientation’ has also proven useful for manner
verbs depicting self-contained motion with a specific orientation, such as posture verbs.
6
The first seven path types (i.e., from To/toward G to Pass/cross G) are drawn from Wälchli (ms.) and
Berthele (2004), whereas the last six are our own additions to account for all the verbs in our corpus.
The reader might note that ‘Closer to G’ could also have been considered as a subtype of the path
‘To/towards G’ instead of as a separate type of path. However, we opted for such granular types of
path in order to better account for the semantic nature of path verbs.
139
o After G: perseguir ‘to chase’, seguir ‘to follow’, follow
In terms of Manner, on the other hand, we have proposed the following finegrained manner categories which are relevant for our analysis:
•
‘Posture’:
o Vertical orientation (upwards or downwards): tenderse ‘to lie onself
down’, agacharse ‘to crouch’, accurrucarse ‘to crouch’, empinar(se) ‘to
(cause to) stand up’
o Horizontal orientation: acostarse, tenderse, echarse ‘to lie down’
o Unspecified orientation: extenderse, estirarse ‘to stretch oneself’, stretch
o Bend, Twist, Curve: arquear ‘to bend oneself’, slouch, twist
o Roll – Unroll: enroscarse ‘ to roll oneself’
o To one side: ladear(se) ‘to slant, to lean’, careen, dodge
•
‘Shake, swing, vibrate’ 7 : temblar, tiritar ‘to tremble, shiver’, tremble, sway
•
‘Revolve, rotate, spin’ 8 : rodar, girar ‘to roll, to turn’, roll, spin, twirl, turn
•
‘Bounce’: botar ‘to bounce’, rebotar ‘to rebound’
•
‘Upside down’: capsize, flip
•
‘Iterative motion’: apisonar ‘to tread repeatedly on something’, bob,
rebound (iterative up-down motion)
These manner categories are mainly related to manner verbs describing selfcontained motion, whereas the following categories are linked to verbs implying
translational Motion (i.e., such manners of motion appear to exist only in the course
of the Figure’s translational motion):
•
‘Path-shape’ 9 :
7
‘Short, sudden movements’ are also included under this category.
8
As pointed out by Levin & Rappaport-Hovav (1992), Levin (1993) and Morimoto (2001), verbs
within this category might also be found in translational motion.
9
As we pointed out in Chapter 4, ‘Path shape’ has been usually regarded as a manner parameter (e.g.,
Nikanne & van der Zee, 2004).
140
o
Zigzag or curved path: culebrear, serpentear ‘to follow a curved
path, to zigzag’, zigzag
•
‘Motor pattern’ (mp): basic locomotive abilities for human and animals.
Different body positions are adopted when performing each motion:
o Ways of walking (mp-walk)
o Ways of running (mp-run)
o Ways of jumping (mp-jump)
o Ways of flying (mp-fly)
o Ways of swimming (mp-swim)
•
‘Rate’: speed of motion; e.g., hurry, dash, sprint, zoom
o Rate-fast; Rate-slow; Rate-increase; Rate-decrease
•
‘Forced motion’ 10 : motion requires an effort to be performed:
o ‘Energy-high’: abalanzarse ‘to dash over in a violent way’, lanzarse
‘to throw oneself’, lunge, plunge, thrust
o ‘Energy-low’: plod, trudge, wade
•
‘Furtive motion’: hidden purpose or secretive motion, as in to avoid being
seen or heard; e.g. crawl, creep, sneak
•
‘Obstructed motion’: there is some impediment or obstacle; e.g., tropezar ‘to
trip’, stumble
•
‘Smooth motion’: motion flows, no obstacle; e.g., glide, slide
•
‘Leisurely motion’: motion for pleasure; e.g., pasear ‘to stroll’, hike, trek
•
‘No aim in motion’: no special purpose; e.g., vagar ‘to wander’, roam,
saunter
•
10
‘Unsteady motion’ 11 : unbalanced motion; e.g., totter, stagger.
The manner category of ‘Violent Motion’ (e.g., abalanzarse ‘to dash over in a violent way’, charge,
plunge) was included within ‘Forced Motion’ as it seems that all verbs denoting violent motion do
encode forced motion as well. Moreover, two subcategories within ‘Forced Motion’ were created: (a)
Energy-high, in order to account for verbs denoting violent motion, and (b) Energy-low, to account for
other verbs denoting an effortful motion which is not violent (e.g., trudge, plod). We are grateful to
Michele Feist for suggesting these two possible subcategories.
11
In the light of our data, this manner category seems to pertain to both self-contained and
translational motion.
141
•
‘State of Figure’: physical (e.g., injured) or psychological state (e.g., proud,
careless, angry); e.g., cojear ‘to limp, hobble’, contonearse ‘to walk swaying
one’s hips in a proud way’, traipse, stroll, swagger
•
‘Dance’: different ways of dancing, e.g., bailotear ‘to dance in a careless
way’, foxtrot, waltz
•
‘Vehicle/Instrument’: conveyance by means of an animal (e.g., trot, gallop)
or of a vehicle (e.g., car (e.g., drive), boat, plane, skates, bike, etc)
•
‘Contact between the Figure and the Ground’:
o ‘Body close to ground’: gatear ‘to crawl’, arrastrarse ‘to drag oneself on
the ground’, grovel, creep
o ‘Smooth Motion’: deslizarse, resbalarse ‘to glide, slide’, glide, slide
o ‘Slight contact’: skim, skitter
•
‘Characteristic use of lower body’
o ‘Length of Steps’: information about the steps/jumps the Figure takes;
e.g. stride (long steps), scurry (small short steps)
o ‘Shape of Legs’: information about the Figure’s legs; e.g. goosestep (legs
lifted high and straight)
o ‘Gradual stages/steps’: edge, inch
•
‘Use of one’s Hands/Legs’: whether the Figure’s hands are also involved in
the motion; e.g., trepar ‘to climb’, crawl, climb, vault
•
‘Motion in file’: desfilar ‘to parade, to march’, parade
•
‘Motion in sports’: regatear ‘to dribble’, dribble
•
‘Joyful, playful motion’: e.g., scamper, frolic
•
‘Uncontrolled motion’: motion without control; e.g., career, careen, skid
•
‘Awkward motion’: shamble
•
‘Noisy motion’: noisy way of moving; e.g., zapatear, taconear ‘to walk/to
dance tapping shoes’, roar, shuffle, stamp
As we saw in Chapter 4, the manner categories listed from ‘Path-shape’ to
‘State of the Figure’ are drawn from Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2006a), Özçaliskan (2004)
and Slobin (2000). The remaining categories, from ‘Dance’ to ‘Noisy motion’, are
142
our own additions in order to account for the semantic specificity of the manner
verbs in our corpus.
When looking at the sorts of semantic components conflated in verbs, we first
and foremost based our decisions on definitions taken from the dictionaries cited
above, though my own introspection as a native speaker of Spanish and
introspections of some English informants were also taken into account. Only
dictionary definitions of physical or actual motion were of interest for our research
purposes, leaving fictive motion (e.g., Talmy, 2000a: 90; Langacker, 1987;
Matsumoto, 1996; Rojo & Valenzuela, 2003) and metaphorical senses (e.g.,
Özçalişkan, 2002, 2004) aside. When the majority of the dictionaries did not agree 12
about the semantic information that the verb denotes, such information was not
included in our semantic encoding; for example, the verb tear is defined as violent
motion (Manner) only in two out of five sources (i.e., Oxford English Dictionary and
Merriam-Webster Online), with the result that this semantic information was not
coded for this verb. Moreover, we often took into consideration a verb’s etymology
in order to better understand its semantics and, quite often, its composite nature. For
instance, the Spanish verb adentrarse ‘to go into/inside’ comes from a (‘to’) + dentro
(‘inside’), and has thus been analysed as conflating Motion + Path; despeñar(se) ‘to
(cause to) fall down from a rock’ comes from des (‘from’) + peña (‘rock’), and has
been analysed as conflating Motion + Path + Ground. With regard to the etymology
of English motion verbs, both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster
Online provided us with such information. In the case of Spanish motion verbs, we
resorted to Cifuentes-Honrubia (1999), who draws from Corominas & Pascual’s
(1984) Diccionario crítico-etimológico castellano e hispánico, and to the two
Spanish monolingual dictionaries, Diccionario de uso del Español and Diccionario
de la lengua española, which also offer the etymologies of words.
12
By agreement across dictionaries, we generally mean 3 of 5 sources for English (4 dictionaries:
CALD, TFD, MW, OED, and 1 thesaurus: LLA) and 2 of 2 dictionaries for Spanish (DUE, DRAE).
The reader should note that LLA is a thesaurus which was just used for human locomotion verbs; it
fails to include many other motion verbs. Moreover, some of the dictionaries do also often fail to
incorporate definitions for some of the English motion verbs. When that was the case, we based our
analysis on the available dictionary definitions.
143
For verbs that have multiple dissimilar meanings (i.e., they conflate different
semantic information) separate numbered entries are created. For example, stalk has
two separate meanings: stalk1 ‘to go stealthily to, towards (an animal) for the
purpose of killing or capturing it’ (OED) and stalk2 ‘to march proudly’ (OED). For
ease of analysis, each numbered verb entry counts as a verb; stalk1 is counted in the
group of furtive motion verbs, whereas stalk2 in the group of verbs encoding the
Figure’s mental state.
The eighth and ninth columns include definitions taken from monolingual
dictionaries and a thesaurus for English which were used when compiling our corpus
of motion verbs. Moreover, syntactic behaviour provided by the dictionaries was
included in those columns, namely, whether the verbs were intransitive, transitive or
pronominal verbs. Pronominal motion verbs are abundant in the Spanish motion verb
lexicon. They are intransitive verbs accompanied by the reflexive pronoun ‘se’. The
reflexive pronoun can either (a) denote that the Figure is acting on itself (e.g.,
acercarse ‘to move oneself closer to’, zambullirse ‘to dive oneself into’; posture
verbs such as acostarse ‘to lay oneself down’ and levantarse ‘to get (oneself) up’) or
(b) just add emphasis to their meanings (e.g., irse ‘to go away’, caerse ‘to fall
down’). All motion verbs (a) which can be both pronominal (i.e., self-agentive) and
transitive (i.e., agentive, caused motion), and (b) whose reflexive pronoun ‘se’ is
used for emphatic purposes were listed with the ‘se’ in brackets (e.g., levantar (se)
‘to raise, to rise’, agitar (se) ‘to shake, to shake oneself’). Those verbs that are
strictly pronominal verbs, are shown with the reflexive pronoun ‘se’ adjoined to the
verb root (e.g., adentrarse ‘to go into the deepest part of’, apresurarse ‘to hurry up’).
Finally, the tenth column in our corpus spreadsheet displays the motor
patterns with which, according to native speakers, human locomotion verbs are
associated. For example, the English verbs dash and dart seem to be related to the
motor pattern run, that is, the Figure seems to be running while dashing or darting.
The data shown in this column come from a study on categorisation. This
information, which constitutes a separate study, will be left out of the discussion of
the corpus and will be taken up in detail in Chapter 6, Section 6.4.
144
5.2.4. Some problems and limitations
The research methodology faces some problems which need to be tackled before
undertaking our enterprise. As we pointed out in the previous section, dictionaries do
not always agree on their motion verb definitions; sometimes there is high variability
in the sort of fine-grained details they are ready to include (as we saw above with the
verb tear), whereas, on other occasions, some dictionaries include a verb sense which
might not be found in any other dictionary. For example, the OED includes a sense
for traipse, to walk in a trailing or untidy way, which is not found in any of our other
sources. In general, our undertaking faces the impossibility of accounting for all the
possible contexts of use that a verb might have—some of which are included in
dictionary definitions. Consequently, we decided to take into account in our analysis
those fine-grained details and those verb senses that were present in the majority of
the dictionaries in order to more closely account for the semantic contribution of the
verb itself.
Another related problem we dealt with is the difficulty telling apart (a) what a
motion verb encodes or lexicalises and (b) what it is just implied, which is connected
to our linguistic knowledge about how a given motion verb is used and to our
semantic interpretation 13 . More often than not, dictionary definitions incorporate
information about the types of Figures (animates, inanimates), Grounds (air, water,
etc), manners of motion (rate, motor pattern) and trajectories (up, down, etc) which
are usually associated with motion verbs, but this information does not necessarily
amount to what is encoded or lexicalised in the verbs. By way of illustration, dodder
and toddle are manner verbs which encode unsteady ways of walking; the former
seems to imply that the Figure is normally an elder person, whereas the latter implies
that the Figure is usually a toddler. However, these verbs may be used with Figures
which are neither elderly people nor toddlers. Another good example is the verb dive;
this verb seems to encode a headfirst downwards motion, which normally takes place
13
Talmy (1985: 59) notes that a meaning can be associated with a linguistic unit mainly by different
processes; among them, lexicalisation and interpretation. In his own words, ‘lexicalization is involved
where a particular meaning component is found to be in regular association with a particular
morpheme’, whereas by interpretation he meant the process of interpreting the meaning of a lexical
unit by drawing from ‘present context and general knowledge’.
145
into water, but not necessarily. To solve this problem, we have attempted to code and
capture that semantic information pertaining to motion which is kept constant
throughout senses regardless of preferred Figures, Grounds, Manners and Paths.
Thus, dodder and toddle are analysed as conflating Motion and Manner but not
figural information; in the case of dive, the Ground (water) is not taken as being
conflated in the verb.
Finally, as the reader might argue, our methodology has a main limitation:
our semantic coding does not equal what might or might not be in speakers’ mental
representations of these verbs. We do not intend, by any means, to argue otherwise.
The results from our analysis call for experimental research to test their
psycholinguistic reality. On the whole, the semantic analysis of the English and
Spanish motion verb lexicons offers a solid linguistic ground for further experimental
research; our results raise some questions regarding what might or might not be in
the speaker’s mind. Obviously, a complete psycholinguistic validation of our
findings falls outside the limits of this dissertation, which just explores the
subdomain of human locomotion by using experimental methods.
5.3. General distribution: verb conflations
This section provides the answer to our first research question, specifically, which
semantic notions are conflated in English and Spanish motion verbs? In this section,
the different sorts of conflations found in our corpus are outlined and fully described.
As we will see, in addition to path-conflating verbs and manner-conflating verbs,
other lexicalisation patterns are found, though they seem to constitute minor patterns
in both languages.
Motion verbs are grouped by taking into account (a) the number of semantic
components lexicalised in each verb, and (b) the semantic information they encode.
In terms of the number of semantic elements, motion verbs fall mainly into 4 groups:
(1) Motion, (2) Motion + 1 semantic component, (3) Motion + 2 semantic
components, and (4) Motion + 3 semantic components. In terms of the semantic
146
information motion verbs encode, the following verb conflations are found in our
corpus of English and Spanish motion verbs:
a.
Motion
b.
Motion + Ground
c.
Motion + Figure
d.
Motion + Path
e.
Motion + Manner
f.
Motion + Cause
g.
Motion + Concurrent Result
h.
Motion + Path + Ground
i.
Motion + Manner + Ground
j.
Motion + Path + Manner
k.
Motion + Figure + Manner
l.
Motion + Cause + Manner
m.
Motion + Cause + Path
n.
Motion + Figure + Co-Motion
o.
Motion + Manner + Co-Motion
p.
Motion + Manner + Concurrent Result
q.
Motion + Path + Ground + Manner
r.
Motion + Cause + Path + Manner
5.3.1. English verbs
Table 5.1 summarises the general conflations found in the English motion verbs in
our corpus. Verb conflations or lexicalisation patterns are grouped with regard to the
number of semantic elements. Then, within each group, they are organised by their
overall frequency, from most frequent types of lexicalisation patterns to the less
frequent or non-existent patterns.
147
NUMBER OF ELEMENTS
SEMANTIC ELEMENTS
VERBS PERCENTAGE
Motion
1
0.27%
1
TOTAL
1
0.27%
2
Motion + Manner
Motion + Path
Motion + Ground
Motion + Figure
Motion + Cause
TOTAL
3
4
276
44
4
2
2
1
329
73.40%
11.70%
1.06%
0.53%
0.53%
0.27%
87.50%
TOTAL
20
6
5
5
4
1
1
5.32%
1.60%
1.33%
1.33%
1.06%
0.27%
0.27%
42
11.17%
TOTAL
TOTAL
3
1
4
376
0.80%
0.27%
1.06%
100.00%
Table 5.1. Semantic distribution of English motion verbs
Only one verb encoding the Motion component alone is found in our corpus: move.
Move is a general motion verb that is defined in dictionaries (CALD, TFD, MW,
OED) both as involving a change of posture (i.e., self-contained motion) and as
involving a change of location (i.e., translational motion).
With regard to verbs that encode Motion plus a single additional semantic
component (pertaining either to the main Motion event or to the Co-event), it is
observed that two lexicalisation patterns are the most frequent in our corpus, namely
path-conflating verbs (11.23% of verbs in the English corpus) and manner-conflating
verbs (73.80% of verbs in the English corpus). We postpone an exhaustive analysis
of these verbs until Sections 5.4 and 5.5 respectively, where we will delve into their
148
semantics by analysing them in terms of more fine-grained components. Besides
these two types of verb conflations, the following minor patterns are also noted:
a.
Motion + Ground: circuit, circulate, fly, hover.
The verb circuit and circulate denote motion in/through/around a circuit (TFD, MW,
OED). Merriam-Webster Online and the Oxford English Dictionary state that circuit
and circulate come from Latin circuitus and circulatus (meaning to move in a circle).
Thus, it seems that these verbs might be also analysed as coding information about
the shape of the path followed during the motion. On the other hand, the verbs fly
and hover indicate motion in the air (CALD, TFD, MW, OED); however, those verbs
differ with respect to the type of motion they refer to. More concretely, fly implies
translational motion whereas hover means to be suspended in the air and, thus, no
translational motion is implied.
b.
Motion + Figure: kick, nod.
These verbs denote that a given body part is moving, in particular, the Figure’s foot,
feet or legs for kick, and the Figure’s head for nod.
c.
Motion + Cause: blow, drift.
These verbs denote that a Figure is moved by external forces, either by a current of
air or wind for both blow and drift, or by a stream of water as in the case of drift
(CALD, TFD, MW, OED).
d.
Motion + Concurrent result 14 : crash.
This verb denotes motion whose result is the Figure’s collision against/into the
Ground (CALD, TFD, MW, OED).
In terms of verbs conflating two semantic components besides Motion, we
found the following patterns:
14
As a reminder, Concurrent result is one of the types of relations which can hold between the main
Motion event and the Co-event. According to Talmy, ‘the Co-event results from – that is, is caused by
– the main Motion event, and would not otherwise occur’ (2000b: 49).
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a.
Motion + Path + Manner: charge, chase, climb, dive, lunge, plummet, plunge,
pounce, rocket2, scram, skedaddle, slink, soar, stalk1, stampede, tail, thrust,
track, trail, tumble.
Overall, this group of verbs denotes information about the trajectory or direction of
motion as well as about the ways in which the Figure moves 15 . Charge, lunge,
plunge and pounce denote sudden motion towards the Ground, usually in a forceful,
violent way and at a fast speed (CALD, TFD, MW, OED). Plunge and lunge can also
exhibit agentive behaviour. Thrust denotes an effortful forward motion. Chase,
stalk1, tail, track and trail denotes that the Figure is moving after another; chase
denotes that the motion is fast, usually running (CALD, TFD, MW, OED), whereas
stalk1, tail and track mean that the Figure follows the other Figure furtively, in a
secretive fashion (CALD, TFD, MW, OED). Finally, trail denotes that the Figure is
moving slowly behind or after the other Figure, usually in contact with the Ground
(CALD, TFD, MW, OED). Scram, slink, skedaddle and stampede mean that the
Figure is moving away from the Ground; scram and skedaddle denote that the Figure
does it so at high speed, whereas slink denotes that the Figure moves in a furtive
manner so as not to be noticed (CALD, TFD, MW, OED). In stampede, the Figure
goes away quickly because it is frightened (MW, OED).
With regard to the vertical axis, that is, upward and downward motion, dive
means to move down headfirst into water or on other Ground in a precipitous way
(CALD, TFD, MW, OED). Plummet and tumble denote downwards motion; the
former being performed at a high speed (CALD, TFD, MW, OED), and the latter
characterised by falling down quickly without control (CALD, MW, OED). Rocket2
and soar depict quick upwards motion (TFD, MW, OED), whereas climb denotes
that the Figure moves up, onto the Ground in a clambering fashion, i.e., use of one’s
15
This group of verbs is one of the most interesting for future experimental research. In Chapter 4, we
argued that it is not clear for many verbs whether they encode both Path and Manner or whether they
just encode Manner, with Path merely implied, as these verbs typically occur with certain trajectories.
Naming and typicality judgment tasks using visual dynamic stimuli with changed paths and changed
manners might help to unveil the semantic nature of this set of verbs. For example, would an event be
labelled by dive or judged as typical of diving if (a) the Figure does not move in a rapid, high
energetic way and (b) if the Figure does not follow a downwards path?.
150
hands and legs (CALD, TFD, MW, OED). As Jackendoff (1985: 279) noted, climb
encodes both Path (upward motion, to the top of, onto) and Manner (clambering), but
‘any of them may be missing in any particular case’. Thus, either of the two semantic
features is sufficient to label an event as climbing.
Motion + Figure + Co-Motion 16 : accompany, conduct, convoy, escort, guide,
b.
lead.
These verbs belong to Levin’s (1993) accompany verbs. They depict Co-Motion as
one person (Figure) is taking a second from one place to another, thus implying
translational motion. The verb convoy was included in Levin’s Vehicle verbs;
however, according to CALD, TFD, MW and OED, this verb does not encode a
specific vehicle but a group of vehicles or of people travelling together.
c.
Motion + Manner + Ground: moonwalk1, paddle1, swim, wade, waft.
Moonwalk, in one of the two senses provided in our corpus, means to walk on the
moon [Ground] (TFD, OED). Paddle1, swim and wade encode particular ways of
moving in water [Ground]. Swim is the most general in meaning as it just denotes
that the Figure adopts a given body position to perform such action; such body
position is dependent on the somatic characteristics of the Figure (CALD, TFD, MW,
OED). Paddle1 is the American word for British wade, but they are not defined in
the same way. Wade denotes to walk in water with some difficulty (CALD, TFD,
MW, OED), whereas dictionaries state that paddle1 denotes playful motion in water
(CALD, TFD, MW, OED). Waft denotes smooth motion through air [Ground], which
can be both non-agentive and agentive motion (CALD, TFD, MW, OED).
d.
Motion + Path + Ground: disembark, embark, emigrate, immigrate, land.
According to Merriam-Webster Online and the Oxford English Dictionary, all these
verbs but land, which comes from Old English, seems to have come to the English
language through Middle French verbs, which in turn come from Latin verbs (des16
Talmy does not include this sort of Co-event relation in his theory. In light of our data, we decided
to create the category Co-Motion to refer to those Co-events in which there is one or more Figure
moving.
151
em-barca, em-barca, e-migrāre, in-migrāre). These verbs generally consist of a
prefix encoding the trajectory of motion plus a noun (barca ‘ship’) or another verb
(migrāre ‘to change one’s residence, to go from one place to another’). Thus, the
verbs disembark and embark denote, respectively, to leave a ship and to get onto a
ship or a vessel [Ground] (TFD, MW, OED). Emigrate and immigrate denote motion
away from one’s country [Ground] and motion into another country respectively
(TFD, MW, OED); moreover, immigrate can denote agentive motion. Land denotes
motion to/towards the ground, which is seen as the endpoint of the motion;
moreover, this verb often implies that the Figure was moving through the air before
landing, but a Figure can also land from a ship, or land after leaping (CALD, TFD,
MW, OED). Consequently, land does not seem to encode any particular manner of
motion.
e.
Motion + Figure + Manner: trample, tread, stamp, step.
This group of verbs denotes motion of body parts (foot, feet and/or legs) in specific
manners. According to dictionaries, trample, tread and step denote or imply that the
Figure is walking while performing these actions, whereas in stamp the Figure is not
necessarily walking (CALD, MW, OED). Stamp seems to also add information about
the Figure’s angry state (CALD). Moreover, trample, stamp and tread denote a sort
of forceful, violent motion when putting one’s feet down onto something, which
thus, can cause damage, as in trample (CALD, TFD, MW). In contrast, step seems to
refer to the action of moving by lifting your foot or feet and settng it/them down
again, that is, to go on foot or to walk (CALD, TFD, MW, OED); thus, step might be
said to be more general in meaning than trample, stamp and tread.
f.
Motion + Manner + Co-Motion: outrun.
This verb means that the Figure runs farther or faster [Manner] than another Figure
that is moving at the same time [Co-Motion] (CALD, TFD, MW, OED).
g.
Motion + Cause + Path: topple.
Unlike many verbs depicting unsteady motion, this particular verb denotes that the
Figure falls down as result of its loss of balance [Cause] (CALD, TFD, MW, OED).
152
Topple may depict self-agentive and non-agentive motion as well as an agentive
motion (caused motion).
Our corpus of English motion verbs does not include the following patterns: Motion
+ Path + Ground, Motion + Cause + Manner, Motion + Manner + Concurrent Result.
These three patterns, as we will see in the following subsection, are realised in some
Spanish verbs.
Finally, four verbs are found in two distinct types of conflations encoding
three semantic components besides the fact of Motion:
a.
Motion + Path + Ground + Manner: skydive, ford, swoop.
Skydive refers to the action of a person jumping [Manner] from an aircraft and falling
[downwards Path] through the air [Ground] for as long as possible before opening a
parachute (TFD). Also encoding air or sky as Ground, swoop denotes a quick motion
[Manner] through the air especially down [Path] from a height (CALD, OED).
Finally, ford means to cross [Path] a body of water [Ground] by wading or walking
[Manner] (CALD, TFD, MW, OED) with some difficulty (MW, OED).
b.
Motion + Cause + Path + Manner: flee.
This verb can denote a physical or non-physical cause (especially, danger) that
originates the Motion event; thus, this verb means that the Figure runs in any
direction away from the Ground (danger) (CALD, TFD, MW, OED).
5.3.2. Spanish verbs
Table 5.2 summarises the general verb conflations found in our corpus of Spanish
motion verbs. Verb conflations are grouped with regard to the number of semantic
elements (i.e., one, two, three or four), and within each group, they are ranked by
frequency.
153
NUMBER OF ELEMENTS
1
SEMANTIC ELEMENTS
VERBS
PERCENTAGE
4
1.56%
4
1.56%
Motion + Manner
123
47.86%
Motion + Path
63
24.51%
Motion + Ground
9
3.50%
Motion + Figure
6
2.33%
3
1.17%
204
79.38%
15
5.84%
12
4.67%
8
3.11%
4
1.56%
4
1.56%
3
1.17%
1
0.39%
47
18.29%
2
0.78%
TOTAL
2
0.78%
TOTAL
257
100.00%
Motion
TOTAL
2
Motion + Cause
TOTAL
3
TOTAL
4
Table 5.2. Semantic distribution of Spanish motion verbs
Four verbs encoding the Motion component alone were found in our corpus:
mover(se) ‘to move, to move oneself’, menear(se) ‘to (cause to) move’, mudarse ‘to
go from one place to another’, trasladar(se) ‘to (cause to) move from one place to
another’. Mover(se), much like English move, is a general motion verb that is defined
in dictionaries both as involving a change of posture (i.e., self-contained motion) and
as involving a change of location (i.e., translational motion). Furthermore, mover is
the agentive version of the verb, whereas moverse the self-agentive and non-agentive
version; these types of motion are both lexicalised in English move. In contrast to
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move, by definition, menear(se) seems to encode self-contained motion (usually
motion of a body part without any change of location of the Figure) whereas
mudarse and trasladar(se) encode translational motion, that is, the Figure moves
from one place to another. It could be argued that these two translational motion
verbs imply/encode motion away from the Ground, that is, the Figure goes away
from a first location in order to get to another location. If that meaning is truly
encoded in the verbs, then these two verbs might be better characterised as path
verbs.
In terms of verb conflation of Motion plus one additional semantic
component, path-conflating verbs and manner-conflating verbs are the most frequent
in our Spanish corpus as well as in our English corpus. As we noted for English,
Spanish verbs also encode some minor patterns:
a.
Motion + Ground: atajar ‘to go somewhere by taking a short cut (Spanish
atajo)’, bordear ‘to skirt, to go along the edge (Spanish borde) of’, circular
‘to move along a given path, go in a circuit’, costear ‘to sail along the coast
(Spanish costa), to move along the edge of’, fondear ‘to move at the bottom
(Spanish fondo) of the sea’, llanear ‘to move, walk or cycle on a flat terrain
(Spanish llano)’, recorrer ‘to move, go around a place’, transitar ‘to go along
a place or way’, volar ‘(of animates, inanimates) to move through the air, to
fly’.
Within this pattern, atajar, bordear, costear, fondear and llanear conflate Ground in
a quite transparent way, at least to Spanish speakers. These verbs are denominal
verbs which specify where the motion is taking place but no further information
about the path or the manner of motion seems to be conveyed. On the other hand,
circular 17 , recorrer and transitar denote motion around, over, or along an area which
remains unspecified and thus, needs overt expression in the utterance. Last, volar
encodes motion through the air. Since volar applies to both animates and inanimates,
17
As we remarked for English circuit and circulate, Spanish circular also comes from a Latin verb,
circulāris, which denotes motion in a circle. Consequently, it could have been analysed as conflating a
circular path shape instead of Ground.
155
the Figures would determine the manner of motion, and the verb was thus not coded
as a manner verb.
b.
Motion + Figure: aletear ‘to flap, to flutter, to wriggle’, cabecear ‘to move or
to shake one’s head’, cocear ‘(of a horse, donkey) to kick’, codear ‘to move
your elbow, to nudge’, colear and rabear ‘(of an animal) to move its tail, to
wag).
The motion verbs in this group are also denominal verbs which transparently
incorporate the body part [Figure] engaged in motion. For example, ala ‘wing’ or
aleta ‘fin’ in aletear; cabeza ‘head’ in cabecear; cola and rabo ‘tail of an animal’ in
colear and rabear, etc.
c.
Motion + Concurrent result: chocar and estrellar(se) ‘to (cause to) crash’,
and colisionar ‘to crash’.
These verbs of motion conflate the result of the Motion event, that is, the collision
between the Figure and the Ground takes place as result of the Figure’s motion.
Chocar and estrellar(se) can depict self-agentive, non-agentive and also agentive
motion, whereas colisionar does not seem to be used agentively.
Unlike the English corpus of motion verbs, our Spanish corpus does not have any
verb conflating Motion + Cause.
Regarding the conflation of fact of Motion and two other semantic
components, the following patterns are observed:
a.
Motion + Path + Manner: abalanzarse ‘to dash to’, acechar ‘to stalk’,
desandar ‘to walk back to a previous path’, echar(se)1 ‘to (cause to) move
towards’, escabullirse ‘to slip away’, escapar(se) ‘to escape’, fugarse ‘to flee,
to run away’, gatear2 ‘to climb like a cat’, huir ‘to flee’, invadir ‘to invade’,
posarse ‘to alight’, precipitar(se)1 ‘to (cause to) fall down from a high
place’, precipitarse2 ‘to run, to hurry to’, rastrear2 ‘to track’, trepar ‘to
climb’.
156
Abalanzarse, echar(se)1, precipitarse2 and posarse encode motion directed towards
the Ground. The first three verbs denote forceful, high-energy motion, whereas the
latter encodes that the Figure is flying and ends up or alights on the Ground.
Escabullirse, escapar(se), fugarse and huir denotes motion away from the Ground
either in a furtive manner so as not to be noticed (escabullirse) or in a rapid motion
(escapar(se), fugarse, huir). Rastrear and acechar encodes furtive or secretive
motion after the Ground. Invadir denotes violent motion into the Ground
(conceptualised as a container). Desandar means to walk back to a previous path.
Gatear2 and trepar denote upward motion while using one´s hands and legs. It is
interesting to note that the verb gatear2 appears to make use of an animal name, i.e.,
gato ‘cat’, to refer to the use of one’s hands and legs in climbing. Last, precipitarse1
encodes a downwards path of motion from a high place to a lower one.
b.
Motion + Path + Ground: aterrizar ‘to land’, desembarcar ‘to (cause to)
disembark’, despeñar(se) ‘to (cause to) fall down from a rock’, embarcar(se)
‘to (cause to) go on board’, emigrar ‘to emigrate’, exiliar(se) and expatriar
‘to (cause to) leave one’s country; to exile’, inmigrar ‘to immigrate’,
naufragar ‘(of a ship, people in a ship) to sink’, repatriar ‘to repatriate’,
sumergir(se) ‘to (cause to) go down into water’, vadear ‘to wade, to ford a
river’.
Most of these verbs express the Ground in the verb root in an obvious way. As was
the case for some English motion verbs encoding Path + Ground, Spanish groundconflating verbs also come from Latin and are made up of Latin path prefixes plus
nouns (Grounds): aterrizar – towards the ground (Spanish tierra); desembarcar – out
of or down from a ship (Spanish barco, barca); despeñar – down from a rock
(Spanish peña); expatriar – away from one´s country (Spanish patria), repatriar –
back to one’s country. In contrast, we find other verbs 18 which encode Path and
Ground as well, but less transparently: emigrar, inmigrar, meaning that the Figure
moves away from and towards one’s country respectively; naufragar and sumergirse
which denotes downwards motion into water, and vadear, which means to cross a
river.
18
These verbs are also from Latin origin: emigrāre, immigrāre, naufragāre, submergēre.
157
c.
Motion + Manner + Ground: callejear ‘to walk around the streets’, ladear ‘to
move on the hillside’, planear ‘(of a plane, a bird) to glide’, bucear ‘to dive,
swim down under water’, nadar ‘to swim’, chapotear ‘to move noisily in
water/mud’, rastrear1 ‘to fly along at ground level’, revolotear ‘to (cause to)
fly around, to flutter’.
Planear, rastrear, revolotear denotes that the Figure is moving through the air; the
first verb describes smooth motion, the second motion along and close to the ground,
and the third encodes motion around, in circles. Bucear, nadar and chapotear
denotes motion in and on water; nadar is the least specific semantically and
expresses that the Figure moves in water in a manner which is dependent on the
Figure’s species. Bucear denotes swimming under water (i.e., the Figure’s body is
submerged), and chapotear refers to the Figure’s noisy motion which is taking place
either in water or mud. Callejear means to walk around the streets (Spanish calle)
with no special aim in the motion, and ladear to walk on the hillside (Spanish
ladera). These two verbs are denominal verbs which denote that the Figure walks
[Manner] around, over, or on the Ground.
d.
Motion + Figure + Manner: patalear and patear1 meaning ‘to stamp one’s
feet showing one is angry’, pisar ‘to tread’, pisotear ‘to tread repeatedly and
violently over something’.
This group of verbs involves one’s foot or feet as Figure which moves in distinct
manners. Pisar seems to be the most general in meaning, just denoting the motion of
each foot when the Figure is walking. Patalear and patear1 encode the angry attitude
of the Figure as shown by the stamping of its feet, and pisotear depicts iterative and
effortful motion of one’s feet when treading over something.
e.
Motion + Cause + Manner: espantar(se) ‘to (cause to) run away as a result of
being frightened’, merodear ‘to walk around, to prowl’, patrullar ‘to patrol’,
rondar ‘to be on patrol, to prowl about, around’.
Espantarse denotes the Figure’s runaway after being frightened. Thus, this verb
encodes the onset causation of motion, that is to say, it precedes the motion event and
158
influences the Figure’s state of mind and its manner of motion. Merodear, patrullar
and rondar denote motion with a specific purpose which has been considered as a
non-physical cause; specifically, to look for something, to nose or to spy in merodear
and to watch over a person or a place in patrullar and rondar. Moreover, merodear
and rondar denote that the Figure is walking, whereas patrullar denotes motion in a
vehicle (patrol car).
f.
Motion + Figure + Co-Motion: acompañar ‘to accompany’, escoltar ‘to
escort’, guiar ‘to guide, lead the way’.
These verbs depict Co-Motion as the Figure is taking a second from one place to
another. Thus, they imply translational motion as well.
g.
Motion + Manner + Concurrent Result: atropellar ‘to run over’.
This verb encodes that the Figure’s motion results in running over something or
someone. The Figure could be either someone driving a vehicle or the vehicle itself.
Unlike the English verb outrun, which conflates Motion + Manner + Co- Motion, no
Spanish verb is found in our corpus which expresses this semantic information.
Finally, two verbs which encode three semantic components beside the fact of
Motion are found in our corpus: capuzar(se) ‘to (cause to) dive in’, and zambullir(se)
‘to (cause to) go down into water in a violent way’. These verbs are agentive verbs
which are made self-agentive by incorporating the reflexive pronoun ‘se’. They
conflate Motion + Path + Ground + Manner. In both uses, the verbs denote that the
Figure goes down [Path] into water [Ground] in a sudden, high-energetic way
[Manner]. No further information about the Manner of motion is given; thus, the
Figure could go down into water headfirst (as it seems to be implied) or in another
way (e.g., in a standing up position).
159
5.3.3. Discussion and Conclusions
In terms of the number of conflated elements, the greater part of the motion verbs in
our corpus (87.50% of English motion verbs and 79.38% of Spanish motion verbs)
encodes one additional semantic component besides the fact of Motion, whereas (a)
verbs expressing just Motion (0.27% for English and 1.56% for Spanish), (b) verbs
conflating two semantic elements (11.17% for English and 18.29% for Spanish), and
(c) verbs conflating three semantic elements (1.06% for English and 0.78% for
Spanish) are much less prevalent. For that reason, it might be concluded that the
conflation of Motion plus one semantic component is the most characteristic or
typical of both motion verb lexicons. In contrast, verbs expressing just Motion and
verbs conflating either two or three semantic elements might be said to be less
representative. This supports Talmy’s (1985: 76) observation that a ‘[c]onflation
systems of […] multi-component sort apparently never form a language’s major
system for expressing Motion’.
In terms of the semantic information English and Spanish motion verbs
encode, with a few exceptions, similar lexicalisation patterns have been found across
the two languages. English and Spanish motion verbs seem to be able to encode a
wide range of semantic information pertaining both to the main Motion event and to
the Co-event (i.e., Manner, Cause, Co-Motion, Concurrent Result, etc). The majority
of the lexicalisation patterns attested in our corpus of motion verbs seems to involve
minor patterns in these languages, that is to say, they are not characteristic or typical
for either English or Spanish. In other words, Motion + Figure (cf. Atsugewi as
documented by Talmy, 2000), Motion + Ground, Motion + Cause and more complex
conflations of Figure, Ground and Co-events relations do exist in English and
Spanish, but they do not appear to form the core system for expressing Motion in
these languages. However, as shown in Tables 5.1 and 5.2, both path-conflating
verbs and manner-conflating verbs are the most frequent in our corpus and represent
a high portion of the motion verb lexicon (320 English verbs, i.e., 85.33% of the
English motion verbs, and 186 Spanish verbs, i.e., 72.37% of the Spanish motion
verbs). As a result, these two lexicalisation patterns might be said to be characteristic
of both English and Spanish. In both languages, manner verbs outnumber path verbs.
Within verb types, English manner verbs surpass Spanish manner verbs (276 -
160
73.80% vs. 123 verbs - 47.86%), but Spanish path verbs outnumber English path
verbs (63 verbs - 24.51% vs. 44 verbs - 11.70%, respectively).
Other crosslinguistic differences are to be found in the lack of verbs encoding
some minor patterns in one language which are found in the other. In particular, our
English corpus does not include the two following lexicalisation patterns: (a) Motion
+ Cause + Manner, as in Spanish espantar(se) ‘to (cause to) run away as result of
being frightened’, and (b) Motion + Manner + Concurrent Result, as in Spanish
atropellar ‘to run over something or somebody while driving a vehicle’. On the other
hand, no Spanish verb is found which expresses (a) Motion + Cause, as in English
drift and blow; (b) Motion + Manner + Co-Motion, as in English outrun; (c) Motion
+ Cause + Path, as in English topple, and (d) Motion + Cause + Path + Manner, as in
English flee.
The most important crosslinguistic difference resides in the greater tendency
of the Spanish language (compared with English) to express the Ground of motion in
verbs, either conflated with Motion alone or with additional semantic elements.
Talmy (1985: 75-76; 2000b: 60-61) noted that the Ground does not by itself conflate
with the Motion verb to form any language’s core system for expressing Motion and
that conflations of this type ‘might not even form any minor system’. He speculated
that the explanation might be sought in a concept of hierarchy, that is, the different
lexicalisation patterns seem ‘to be ranked in their prevalence among the world’s
languages, with conflation of Path as the most extensively represented, of
Manner/Cause next, and of Figure least so’. Apparently, Ground conflation is also a
possibility among languages, but he argues that ‘[it is] so unlikely that it has not yet
been instantiated in any language’ (Talmy, 2000b: 61). Our data, however, seem to
challenge Talmy’s remarks; English and Spanish both have some motion verbs
conflating Ground. Even though it seems to be a minor pattern in those languages
(12.06% in the Spanish corpus of motion verbs, and 4.55% in the English), their
presence should not be overlooked.
Table 5.3 includes English and Spanish ground-conflating verbs (grouped
into four different patterns) as well as the number of verbs per pattern and their total
percentage per language in our corpus.
161
CONFLATIONS
Motion + Ground
Motion + Path +
Ground
Motion + Manner
+ Ground
Motion + Path +
Ground + Manner
SPANISH
VERBS
atajar ‘to go somewhere by taking a short
cut’, bordear ‘to skirt, to go along the
edge of’, circular ‘to move along a given
path, go in a circuit’, costear ‘to sail along
the coast, to move along the edge of’,
fondear ‘to move at the bottom of the sea’,
llanear ‘to move, walk or cycle on a flat
terrain’, recorrer ‘to move, go around a
place’, transitar ‘to go along a place or
way’, volar ‘to move through the air, to
fly’
aterrizar ‘to land’, desembarcar ‘to (cause
to) disembark’, despeñar(se) ‘to (cause to)
fall down from a rock’, embarcar(se) ‘to
(cause to) go on board’, emigrar ‘to
emigrate’, exiliar(se) and expatriar ‘to
(cause to) leave one’s country; to exile’,
inmigrar ‘to immigrate’, naufragar ‘(of a
ship, people in a ship) to sink’, repatriar
‘to repatriate’, sumergir(se) ‘to (cause to)
go down into water’, vadear ‘to wade, to
ford a river’.
callejear ‘to walk around the streets’,
ladear ‘to move on the hillside’, planear
‘(of a plane, a bird) to glide’, bucear ‘to
dive, swim down under water’, nadar ‘to
swim’, chapotear ‘to move noisily in
water/mud’, rastrear1 ‘to fly along the
ground level’, revolotear ‘to (cause to) fly
around, to flutter’
capuzar(se) ‘to (cause to) dive in’,
zambullir(se) ‘to (cause to) go down into
water in a violent way’
TOTAL
PERCENTAGE OF MOTION VERB
LEXICON
ENGLISH
#
VERBS
#
9
circuit,
circulate, fly,
hover
4
12
disembark,
embark,
emigrate,
immigrate,
land
5
8
moonwalk1,
paddle1,
swim, wade,
waft
5
2
skydive, ford,
swoop
3
31
17
12.06%
4.55%
Table 5.3. English and Spanish verbs conflating Ground
Though the Spanish motion verbs in our corpus incorporating Ground outnumber
those of English, no significant difference is found in the distribution of Ground
conflation types across languages (Chi-square (3) = 1.7652, p > 0.05). That is to say,
the two languages do not differ in how they distribute their verbs into the four
162
Ground conflation types. As has been noted earlier, Spanish ground-conflating verbs
are, to a certain extent, transparent in their composite nature. Most of these verbs
come from Latin verbs which were made up of nouns, preceded by prefixes encoding
Path (e.g., aterrizar, desembarcar, embarcar(se), expatriar, repatriar) (cf. CifuentesHonrubia, 1999). In contrast, our corpus of English verbs contains less verbs
encoding Ground, and in most cases these verbs come from Anglo-French and
Middle French, which were from Latin origin as well, either coming from nouns
without path prefixes (e.g., circuit, circulate) or from nouns with path prefixes (e.g.,
disembark, embark). On other occasions, both English and Spanish groundconflating verbs appear to be derived from nouns, such as Spanish atajar, bordear,
costear, fondear, llanear, callejear and ladear, and English land, moonwalk and
skydive.
5.4. Path verbs
In this section, we address the following general research question: Do English and
Spanish have comparable path verb lexicons? This question unfolds into two further
questions: Are the two path lexicons comparable in size? And Are the two path
lexicons comparable in their semantic nature? The former calls for quantitative data,
and has been answered covertly in the previous section; specifically, as shown in the
general distribution of English and Spanish motion verbs in our corpus, a total of 63
Spanish path verbs versus 44 English path verbs have been identified. Consequently,
it seems that the Spanish path verb lexicon is larger and thus, it might be richer or
more varied than the English path verb lexicon. However, qualitative data are needed
before we can draw such a conclusion. It might be the case that both languages
encode similar sorts of path notions in their verbs, but Spanish might have a greater
number of verbs expressing these notions. The other possibility is that Spanish verbs
encode types of path which are not found in English verbs, thus, suggesting that the
Spanish path verb lexicon is both larger in size and more varied in the path notions
its verbs encode. This lead us to the latter research question, Are the two path
lexicons comparable in their semantic nature?, which calls for a qualitative analysis
163
so as to unveil both (a) the sorts of path notions which are typically lexicalised in
English and Spanish respectively, and (b) crosslinguistic similarities and differences
in the semantics of path verbs. Therefore, this section mainly focuses on the semantic
nature of path verbs in English and Spanish. Moreover, special attention is given to
their etymology 19 as many path verbs in both languages come from Latin and, as a
consequence, they might be expected to express the same sorts of path information.
Path verbs across languages have been clustered in terms of the types of path
they express. Overall, 13 types of Path have been identified in our corpus:
o To/towards G (arrival, endpoint)
o Away from G (departure, source)
o Into G (container)
o Out of G (container)
o Up/onto G - Upwards
o Down /down from G – Downwards
o Pass/cross G (traversal, milestone)
o Closer to G
o Forwards
o Backwards
o Change direction
o Multiple directions from a unique start
o After G
In the following two sections, we begin by exploring the types of paths which are
most frequently lexicalised in the English and the Spanish path verbs in our corpus,
we then, move on to deal with those which are less frequent.
19
To remind the reader, our sources for the etymology of verbs are Merriam-Webster Online and the
Oxford English Dictionary for English, and Diccionario del uso del español actual, Diccionario de la
Real Academia de la Lengua Española, and Cifuentes-Honrubia (1999), which draws on Corominas
& Pascual (1984), for Spanish.
164
5.4.1. English path verbs
Table 5.4 summarises the distribution of English path verbs in terms of the
aforementioned types of path, ranked by their frequency relative to the path lexicon.
ENGLISH
TYPES OF PATH
#
%
Away from G
11
25.00%
Up/Onto G - Upwards
5
11.36%
After G
4
9.09%
Change direction
4
9.09%
Down from/to G - Downwards
4
9.09%
To/towards G
4
9.09%
Back to G/ Backwards
3
6.82%
Pass/cross G
3
6.82%
Into G
2
4.55%
Closer to G
1
2.27%
Forwards
1
2.27%
Multiple directions
1
2.27%
Out of G
1
2.27%
44
100.00%
TOTAL
Table 5.4. Distribution of English path verbs
As shown in the table, some types of path are much more frequent than others in our
corpus of English path verbs; for instance, the ‘Away from G’ type is the most
frequent and the ‘Out of G’, ‘Closer to G’, ‘Forwards’ and ‘Multiple directions from
a unique start’ are the least frequent. In order to examine the path verbs which
express these types of paths, we begin with the most frequent types of path and end
with the least frequent types:
a.
Away from G (departure, source) (11 verbs, 25% of English path verbs): go,
abandon, depart, desert, dodge2, escape, leave, recede, retire, retreat, stray.
This group of verbs generally denotes motion away from the Ground. This
translational motion can imply that (a) the Figures leaves the Ground (as direct
object) behind, sometimes on its own and in a bad situation (e.g., abandon, desert);
165
(b) the Figure is fleeing from the Ground in order to be free or to avoid danger (e.g.,
escape, retreat); (c) the Figure avoids the Ground by moving quickly to one side
(dodge2) and (d) the Figure goes away from the intended path (stray). Within this
group, only retire and retreat seem to be also used as agentive verbs.
Go, depart and leave seem to be the most general in meaning, as they seem to
refer to the Figure’s movement away, with no further implications (CALD, TFD,
MW, OED). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, go is an intransitive verb
of motion which has 3 basis senses: (a) the Figure is moving away from the speaker,
or from the point at which he mentally places himself; (b) the Figure is moving
towards a place which is not occupied by the speaker, and (c) the Figure is moving
without regard to its point of departure or destination. Thus, go in (a) and (b) is a
deictic path verb since it encodes motion away from the relative position of the
speaker and seems to imply motion ‘to/towards another place’. In contrast, go in (c)
appears to act as a general motion verb without any specific path.
In terms of their etymology, abandon comes from Anglo-French abanduner
(from (mettre) a bandun, which means ‘to hand over, put in someone’s control’)
(MW). Desert comes from Anglo-French, from Late Latin desertum (neuter of
desertus, past participle of deserere ‘to desert’, which is formed by the prefix de‘from, down, away’ + serere ‘to join together’). According to Merriam-Webster
Online, the Latin prefix de- meant ‘from, down, away’. It seems that by adjoining the
prefix to the Latin verb root, it altered its meaning and evolved to ‘move away from’.
Depart also comes from Anglo-French departir, which in turn comes from de- +
partir ‘to divide’ (from the Latin verb partire, from part-, pars ‘part’). Escape comes
from Anglo-French escaper, eschaper, from Vulgar Latin excappare = Latin ex- +
Late Latin cappa ‘head covering, cloak’. Leave comes from Old English læfan and
retire from Middle French retirer (re- + tirer ‘to draw’). Recede comes from Latin
recedere ‘to go back’, which is made up of re- ‘back, again’ + cedere ‘to go’. Retreat
comes from Anglo-French retrait, past participle of retraire ‘to withdraw’, which
originates from Latin retrahere = re- ‘back, again’ + trahere ‘to draw’. Last, stray
also comes from Anglo-French estraier, from Vulgar Latin extravagare = extra‘outside’ + vagari ‘to wander’.
166
b.
Up/onto G – Upwards (5 verbs, 11.36% of English path verbs): arise2,
ascend, mount, rise1, scale.
Arise2, ascend and rise1 denote upwards motion relative to the earth. Mount can
denote elevation and upwards motion, but also motion onto the Ground. On the other
hand, scale seems to just denote motion up, onto the Ground. Regarding etymology,
scale comes from Late Latin scala ‘ladder, staircase’ and it seems to have been
related to Latin scandere ‘to climb’; ascend comes from the Latin verb ascendere
(ad-‘to, near’ + scandere ‘to climb’) and the rest are from Germanic origin.
c.
Down from/to G – Downwards (4 verbs, 9.09% of English path verbs):
descend, drop, fall, sink.
These four verbs describe downwards motion with regard to the earth. Descend
comes from Anglo-French descendre, which in turn originates from the Latin verb
descendere (de- ‘from, down, away’ + scandere ‘to climb’). Thus, both descend and
ascend (see above) derive from the same Latin verb root, but their meanings are
distinct by virtue of the prefixes which were adjoined to this root.
d.
Change direction (4 verbs, 9.09%): divert, swerve, tack, turn2.
This group of verbs denotes that the Figure changes its trajectory of motion. In the
case of tack, the Figure typically seems to be a ship (TFD, MW, OED). From this
group, only divert and turn2 can display agentive behaviour (caused motion). In
terms of their etymology, divert comes from Middle French diverter and Latin
divertere ‘to turn in opposite directions’.
e.
After G 20 (4 verbs, 9.09%): follow, hound, pursue, shadow.
These verbs denote that the Figure is moving behind or after another Figure. Apart
from follow, which only seems to denote path, hound, pursue and shadow seem to
imply more semantic information. For example, hound seems to emphasise the
Figure’s relentless pursuit of the second Figure (TFD); pursue seems to often imply
that the chaser intends to capture or kill the second Figure (CALD, TFD, MW,
20
Another possible analysis would have been to code the path verbs within this category as conflating
Co-Motion as well since there are at least two Figures involved in the motion event.
167
OED), but not necessarily; and shadow appear to imply secretive motion (TFD,
MW). Within this group of verbs, only pursue appears to be of Latin origin (from
Anglo-French pursure, pursiure, from Latin prosequi = pro- ‘forward’ + sequi ‘to
follow’).
f.
To/towards G (arrival, endpoint)(4 verbs, 9.09%): arrive, alight, come, reach.
This group of verbs generally refers to the accomplishment of the Figure’s
movement towards the Ground. Arrive comes from Anglo-French ariver, which
come from the Vulgar Latin verb arripāre (Latin ad- ‘to’ + ripa ‘shore’) ‘to come to
shore’. Nowadays, this path verb denotes that the Figure reaches its destination and
seems to be close in meaning to reach. Alight also denotes that the Figure reaches the
Ground, but appears to imply that the motion is down from an animal or vehicle
(CALD, TFD, MW, OED). Finally, come is a deictic path verb as it denotes motion
towards the speaker. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, come is a basic
intransitive verb of motion which express movement towards or so as to reach the
speaker, or the person spoken to. Moreover, this verb is also used to refer to the
accomplishment of the movement involved in reaching.
g.
Pass/cross G (traversal, milestone) (3 verbs, 6.82% of English path verbs):
cross, pass, traverse.
According to MW and OED, the first verb comes from the Latin noun crux ‘cross’;
the second, from Anglo-French passer, whose origin is the Vulgar Latin verb
passāre (from Latin passus ‘step’); and the third comes from Anglo-French travers
(as in a travers, de travers ‘across’), which derives from the Latin adverb
transversum (as in in transversum ‘set crosswise’). Though these verbs do not come
from Latin verbs encoding the notion of traversal and/or passing along or beyond a
milestone, they nowadays denote such notions.
The verb pass deserves our special attention as it can denote 3 distinct types
of paths according to our dictionaries: (a) to go by, past, beyond the Ground (seen as
a reference point) (CALD, TFD, MW, OED) (b) to go across, through the Ground
(seen as a two or three dimensional entity which can be traversed) (CALD, TFD,
MW), and (c) to move forwards, to proceed or go on (CALD, TFD, MW, OED),
168
which denotes a ‘Forward’ type of path. On the other hand, cross and traverse denote
motion across, through the Ground, which seems to be generally a two or three
dimensional entity instead of a point in space.
h.
Back to G/Backwards (3 verbs, 6.82%): back, return, recoil.
This group of verbs, unlike many other English path verbs, does not seem to come
from Latin. According to MW and OED, back comes from Old English whereas the
other two come from Anglo-French; return = prefix re- ‘back, again’ + turner ‘to
turn’, and recoil = re- ‘back, again’ + cul ‘backside’. Back and recoil denote motion
backwards, but no explicit reference to the trajectory towards the Ground seems to be
conveyed by these verbs (CALD, TFD, MW, OED). In contrast, return denotes the
Figure’s trajectory back to an earlier location or place (CALD, TFD, MW, OED).
Back and return can also be agentive verbs.
i.
Into G (container) (2 verbs, 4.55% ): enter, penetrate.
The former comes from Anglo-French entrer, whose origin is the Latin verb intrāre,
which comes from the adverb or preposition intra ‘within’. The latter comes from the
Latin penetratus, past participle of the verb penetrāre, from penitus ‘deep within,
far’.
j.
Out of G (container) (1 verb, 2.27% of English path verbs): exit.
This English verb comes from Latin exire ‘to go out’ = ex- (out) + ire (go) (MW,
OED).
k.
Closer to G (1 verb, 2.27%): approach.
This verb comes from Anglo-French aprocher, whose origin is the Late Latin verb
appropiāre; this verb is made up of Latin ad- ‘to’ + prope ‘near’ (MW, OED).
l.
Forwards (1 verb, 2.27%): advance.
According to MW and OED, advance comes from Anglo-French avancer, from
Vulgar Latin abantiāre, from Late Latin abante ‘in front’, from Latin ab-‘to’ + ante
169
‘before’. This verb can display agentive behaviour as well (CALD, TFD, MW,
OED).
m.
Multiple directions from a unique start (1 verb, 2.27% of English path verbs):
scatter.
This is a self-agentive, non-agentive and agentive verb whose Figure is usually a
group of entities, and denotes motion far apart in different directions (CALD, TFD,
MW, OED).
5.4.2. Spanish path verbs
In Table 5.5 we present the distribution of Spanish path verbs in our corpus in terms
of the types of path that these verbs encode.
SPANISH
TYPES OF PATH
#
%
Away from G
14
22.22%
To/towards G
8
12.70%
Up/Onto G - Upwards
8
12.70%
6
9.52%
Into G
6
9.52%
4
6.35%
Change direction
4
6.35%
Closer to G
3
4.76%
Pass/cross G
3
4.76%
After G
2
3.17%
Forwards
2
3.17%
Multiple directions
2
3.17%
Out of G
1
1.59%
63
100.00%
TOTAL
Table 5.5. Distribution of Spanish path verbs
Some types of path are much more frequent than others in our corpus of Spanish path
verbs; for instance, the ‘Away from G’ type is the most frequent, whereas the ‘After
170
G’, ‘Forwards’, ‘Multiple directions’, and ‘Out of G’ are the least frequent types. In
our examination of Spanish path verbs, we begin with the most frequent path types as
ranked in the table:
a.
Away from G (departure, source) 21 (14 verbs, 22.22% of Spanish path verbs):
abandonar ‘to abandon’, alejar(se) ‘to (cause to) move far away from’,
apartar(se) ‘to (cause to) move away from’, desertar ‘to desert’,
distanciar(se) ‘to (cause to) move away from’, esquivar ‘to avoid, to dodge’,
ladear(se) ‘to (cause to) move away from’, largarse ‘to leave’, marcharse ‘to
leave’, partir ‘to leave’, pirarse ‘to go away (informal)’, retirar(se) ‘to
remove, to take away, to retreat’, zarpar ‘(of a ship) to set off’, ir(se) ‘to go,
to go away’.
This large group of verbs denotes motion away from the Ground. Some of these
verbs can imply that (a) the Figure leaves the Ground behind, sometimes on its own
and in a bad situation (e.g., abandonar ‘to abandon’, desertar ‘to desert’); (b) the
Figure avoids the Ground by moving quickly to one side (esquivar ‘to dodge’,
ladear(se) ‘to (cause to) move away from) and (c) the Figure initiates its motion
away from the Ground (e.g., largarse, marcharse, partir, pirarse ‘to leave’ and
zarpar ‘(of a ship) to set off’).
The verb ir(se) deserves special attention. As DUE and DRAE suggest in
their definitions, ir(se) can denote that (a) the Figure is moving away from the
speaker in a given direction (especially to a place), and (b) the Figure is moving (in
any manner, such as, on foot, vehicle, etc) without regard to its point of departure or
destination, from one place to another. Thus, in (a), ir(se) is a deictic path verb since
it encodes motion away from the relative position of the speaker, but it also can
imply the path ‘to/towards a place’. In contrast, ir(se) in (b) appears to act as a
general motion verb without any specific path.
21
The Spanish motion verbs mudarse ‘to go from one place to another’ and trasladar(se) ‘to (cause
to) move from one place to another’ were coded as general motion verbs (Section 5.4.1). As has
already been pointed out, these two verbs might also be considered as path verbs denoting motion
away from the Ground, as the Figure seems to leave a first location to get to another.
171
Regarding the etymology of this group of verbs, some verbs are from Latin
origin, such as apartar, partir (from Latin pars, parties ‘part’), and ir(se) (from Latin
ire ‘to go’), whereas others come from other sources. Abandonar comes from the
French verb abandoner, which in turn comes from Germanic banna ‘punishment
order’; marcharse 22 seems to come from the French manner verb marcher; pirarse,
an informal verb which means ‘to go away’, comes from Caló (i.e., dialect spoken by
Spanish Gypsies); zarpar from the old Italian verb sapare. Moreover, alejar(se)
appears to be derived from the adverb lejos ‘far’, thus, alejar(se) ‘to (cause to) move
far, away from’. Last, distanciar(se) is a denominal verb according to CifuentesHonrubia (1999); it comes from the noun distancia ‘distance’ (from the Latin noun
distantia).
b.
To/towards G (arrival, endpoint) (8 verbs, 12.70% of Spanish path verbs):
abordar ‘to approach’, acudir ‘to go to a specific place’, alcanzar ‘to reach’,
arribar ‘(of a ship) to reach port, to arrive’, atracar ‘(of a ship) to reach port’,
dirigir(se) ‘to lead something or someone to somewhere, to head to’, llegar
‘to arrive’, venir ‘to come (towards the speaker)’.
This group of verbs generally denotes the accomplishment of the Figure’s movement
towards the Ground. All, but two of these verbs are from Latin etymology.
According to DRAE and Cifuentes-Honrubia (1999), atracar ‘of a ship to reach port’
comes from Arabic taráqqa, which meant the same. Abordar comes from a + borde,
which comes from French bord. This verb denotes that the Figure moves closer and
towards the Ground, which seems to be either a ship or a person. Also related to the
motion of ships, arribar comes from the Latin verb arripāre (Latin ad- ‘to’ + ripa
‘shore’) ‘to come to shore’. Unlike English arrive, Spanish arribar seems to have
been restricted to motion of ships. Acudir comes from Latin accurrere, with the same
meaning; alcanzar also comes from a Latin verb incalciare, but it underwent a
change of prefix (DUE). Dirigir(se) comes from the Latin verb dirigere, whose
meaning is not provided in any of our sources. Llegar comes from the Latin verb
22
In contrast to the Spanish manner verb marchar ‘to march, to walk with regular steps’, which seems
to be influenced by French marcher, marcharse as pronominal verb seems to be devoid of any manner
information.
172
plicāre, whose meaning was ‘to fold’. To finish, venir (from Latin venire) is a deictic
path verb which denotes that the Figure goes towards the place where the speaker is
situated. According to DUE, when used as a pronominal verb, venirse denotes that
the Figure leaves its prior location to go to where the speaker is.
c.
Up/onto G – Upwards (8 verbs, 12.70%): ascender ‘to ascend’, elevar(se) ‘to
(cause to) move upwards’, encaramar(se) ‘to (cause to) move up, to the top
of’, encumbrar ’to reach the top of’, escalar ‘to scale, to climb’, levantar(se)
‘to lift, to raise’, remontar ‘to go up, to swim up, to soar’, subir ‘to ascend, to
(cause to) go up’
Encaramar(se), encumbrar, and escalar denote motion up/onto the Ground, in other
words, the Figure gets up to or onto the Ground as the result of its translational
motion. In contrast, elevar(se), levantar(se), remontar and subir denote upwards
motion with respect to the earth and they do not necessarily denote that the Figure
reaches any potential Ground. Regarding their etymology, except for encaramar
(from Arabic karama), all these verbs come from Latin as well. Ascender comes
from the Latin verb ascendere (ad-‘to, near’ + scandere ‘to climb’); elevar from
Latin elevare (DUE, DRAE) or from the Latin adjective levis ‘light’ (CifuentesHonrubia, 1999); encumbrar can be decomposed into the prefix en + cumbre ‘peak,
top of a mountain’, from the Latin noun culmen, -inis, with the same meaning as the
Spanish noun. Escalar comes from Latin scalaris. According to DUE and DRAE,
levantar(se) comes from the participle of the Latin verb levare; however, CifuentesHonrubia (1999) associates this verb with the Latin adjective levis ‘light’. Subir
comes from the Latin verb subire, which can be descomposed into sub ‘under’ + ire
‘to go’, which denoted to go to a higher place from below (Cifuentes-Honrubia,
1999).
d.
Down from/to G – Downwards (6 verbs, 9.52% of Spanish path verbs): bajar
‘to (cause to) go down’, caerse ‘to fall down’, derrumbar(se) ‘to (cause to)
fall down’, descender ‘to (cause to) go down’, desplomar(se) ‘to (cause to)
collapse’, hundir(se) ‘to (cause to) collapse, to sink’
173
These verbs denote either downwards motion relative to the earth or downwards
motion from one place to another. All these verbs come from Latin (DUE, DRAE,
Cifuentes-Honrubia, 1999): bajar comes from the Latin adjective bassus ‘short,
low’; caerse from cadere; derrumbar(se) from derrupare, which derived from rupus
‘rock’; descender from Latin descendere (de- ‘from, down, away’ + scandere ‘to
climb’); desplomar(se) from des- + plomo, which derived from Latin plumbum; and
hundir(se) from Latin fundere ‘destroy, ruin’.
e.
Into G (container) (6 verbs, 9.52%): acceder ‘to gain access into’, adentrarse
‘to go into the interior part of’, encerrar(se) ‘to put something, someone or
oneself into an enclosed place’, entrar ‘to enter’, penetrar ‘to enter’,
profundizar ‘to get into’
All verbs lexicalising this type of path are from Latin origin (e.g., verbs, prefixes +
verbs, prefixes + adverbs, adjectives). Acceder comes from Latin accedere ‘to move
closer to’, but its meaning seems to have evolved from ‘to move close to’ to ‘to
enter’. Adentrarse comes from the adverb adentro whose etymological origin is that
of ad- ‘to’ + deintro ‘interior, inside’. Encerrar(se) comes from en + cerrar, which
derive from the Latin prefix in- and the Vulgar Latin verb serrāre ‘to close’. Like the
English path verbs enter and penetrate, Spanish entrar comes from Latin intrāre,
which in turn comes from intra ‘within’, and penetrar from the Latin penetratus, past
participle of the verb penetrāre (from penitus ‘deep within, far’). Finally,
profundizar comes from the Latin adjective profundus (Cifuentes-Honrubia, 1999).
f.
Back to G/Backwards (4 verbs, 6.35%): contramarchar ‘to go backwards, to
back’, regresar ‘to come back’, retornar ‘to return, to go back, to give back’,
retroceder ‘to go back, to back down’
Regresar and retornar, which can also be an agentive verbs, denote the
accomplishment of the Figure’s motion back to a previous location. In contrast,
contramarchar and retroceder encode backwards motion, but not necessarily back to
a previous location. Contramarchar is made up of contra (from Latin contra) +
marchar (from French marcher); regresar comes from the Latin noun regressus
‘return’; retornar is made up of re + tornar (from Latin tornāre); and retroceder
174
comes from retrocedere = retro ‘backwards’ + cedere ‘to leave, to go away’
(Cifuentes-Honrubia, 1999).
g.
Change direction (4 verbs, 6.35%): desviar(se) ‘to divert, to be diverted’,
girar1 ‘to turn, to change one’s direction’, torcer(se)1 ‘to turn, to change
direction’, virar ‘(of a ship) to swerve’
This group of verbs depicts that the Figure changes its trajectory of motion. Virar
seems to be the most specific verb as it seems to be applied to ships alone. Within
this group of verbs, only desviar, without the reflexive pronoun, can denote agentive
motion. Regarding their etymology, desviar(se) comes from Latin deviare (de ‘away
from’ + viare ‘path, way’); girar from Latin gyrare; torcer(se) from torquere; and
virar from Celtolatin virare.
h.
Closer to G (3 verbs, 4.76%): acercar(se), aproximar(se), arrimar(se), all of
which mean ‘to (cause to) move closer to’.
These three verbs are typically agentive verbs, that is to say, they denote an external
agent that moves the Figure closer to the Ground. When these verbs are used
pronominally (i.e., with the reflexive pronoun ‘se’), they can denote self-agentive
motion, i.e., that the Figure moves itself closer to the Ground. In terms of their
etymology, acercar(se) comes from Latin circa ‘around, surround’, from which its
meaning of moving close seems to have evolved; aproximar(se) consists of a (ad‘to’) + proximo (Latin proximus ‘the closest, close’) (Cifuentes-Honrubia, 1999). The
etymological origin of arrimarse is unknown.
i.
Pass/cross G (traversal, milestone) (3 verbs, 4.76%): atravesar ‘to cross, to
go through’, cruzar ‘to cross’, pasar ‘to pass, to go through, over, along,
beyond’.
Atravesar (a + traves) comes from Latin ad- ‘to’ + traversus. Cruzar comes from the
Latin noun crux, and pasar comes from the Latin verb passāre. According to DUE
and DRAE, pasar denotes motion from one place to another in relation to a Ground.
Such translational motion can follow several trajectories: over, by, past, beyond the
Ground (as a point in space); along and through the Ground (as a two or three-
175
dimensional entity respectively). In contrast, atravesar and cruzar only denote that
the Ground can be traversed.
j.
After G (2 verbs, 3.17%): perseguir ‘to chase’, seguir ‘to follow’
These two verbs denote that the Figure is moving behind or after another Figure. One
subtle difference between the two verbs might be that perseguir seem to denote that
the second Figure is fleeing from its chaser.
k.
Forwards (2 verbs, 3.17%): adelantar(se) ‘to (cause to) move forwards’,
avanzar ‘to move forwards’.
According to DUE and DRAE, avanzar comes from Latin abantiāre, which is made
up of ab ‘to’ + ante ‘front’. In these dictionaries no etymology is provided for
adelantar. According to Cifuentes-Honrubia (1999), adelantar (= a + delante) is
derived from the adverb delante which comes from denate = de + enante, which in
turn comes from Latin inante ‘in front’. Thus, these verbs have come to denote
motion to the front, in other words, moving forwards.
l.
Multiple directions from a unique start (2 verbs, 3.17%): dispersar(se) ‘to
(cause to) disperse’, esparcir(se) ‘to (cause to) move in different directions’.
Similarly to English path verbs for this type of motion, these are self-agentive, nonagentive and agentive verbs whose Figure is a group of entities or a mass.
m.
Out of G (container) (1 verb, 1.59% of Spanish path verbs): salir ‘to exit’.
Like in our corpus of English path verbs, just one Spanish verb encoding motion out
of a container is found. Spanish salir comes from Latin salire, that is, a manner verb
which meant ‘to jump’. Wälchli (ms) points out that the frequent association of salire
with satellites such as out or up might explain how salire acquired the meaning of
motion out from a container in Spanish, and the meaning of upwards motion in
Italian.
176
Table 5.6 summarises both qualitative data (i.e., types of path) and quantitative data
(i.e., number of path verbs per type of path and their frequency within the path
lexicon) from our analysis of path verbs in English and Spanish. The table is
arranged from the more frequent to the less frequent types of paths which are
lexicalised in Spanish. By doing so, it is possible to point out both similarities
(whether both languages follow the same tendency in lexicalising some types of path
over others) and differences between the two languages.
TYPES OF PATH
SPANISH
ENGLISH
#
%
#
%
Away from G
14
22.22%
11
25.00%
Up/Onto G - Upwards
8
12.70%
5
11.36%
To/towards G
8
12.70%
4
9.09%
6
9.52%
4
9.09%
Into G
6
9.52%
2
4.55%
Change direction
4
6.35%
4
9.09%
4
6.35%
3
6.82%
Pass/cross G
3
4.76%
3
6.82%
Closer to G
3
4.76%
1
2.27%
After G
2
3.17%
4
9.09%
Forwards
2
3.17%
1
2.27%
Multiple directions
2
3.17%
1
2.27%
Out of G
1
1.59%
1
2.27%
63
100%
44
100%
TOTAL
Table 5.6. Distribution of English and Spanish path verbs
We carried out the non-parametric test chi-square to see whether the distributions of
path verbs into 13 types of path in English and in Spanish were significantly
different. Although the two languages differ in the number of path verbs, no
significant difference is found in the distribution of path types across languages (Chisquare (12) = 4.105, p > 0.05). This suggests that the two languages do not differ in
the organisation of their path verb lexicon.
177
Bearing this mind, we can begin to answer our research questions regarding
path verbs. One of the two main research questions asked whether the English and
the Spanish path verb lexicons were comparable in size. If we look at Table 5.6, we
could answer: No, they are not; Spanish path verbs outnumber English path verbs. In
the Spanish corpus, 63 path verbs have been found (which amount to the 24.51% of
the Spanish motion verb lexicon), whereas in the English corpus, 44 path verbs have
been identified (which represent 11.70% of the English motion verb lexicon). The
second research question asked whether the two path lexicons were comparable in
their semantic nature. After a close examination of the types of path which are
encoded by these languages, we might conclude that although the two path lexicons
differ in size, they are able to encode the same sorts of path information; in
particular, both languages have path verbs expressing the 13 types of path used in our
analysis and their distributions do not differ significantly.
Our data, moreover, show that Spanish path verbs outnumber English path
verbs in 9 out of the 13 types of path, namely, ‘Away from G’, ‘To/towards G’,
‘Up/onto G – Upwards’, ‘Down from/to G – Downwards’, ‘Into G’, ‘Back to
G/Backwards’, ‘Forwards’, ‘Closer to’, and ‘Multiple directions’. Spanish possesses
more path verbs for some types of path than English. According to dictionary
definitions, the various path verbs within the same type of path might be used for
specific contexts (informal contexts), for certain Figures or even for certain Grounds.
In terms of the ‘Away from G’ type of path, Spanish zarpar seems to be only used
when the Figure is a ship, and pirarse and largarse are informal verbs. Within the
‘To/towards G’, where the Ground is the endpoint of motion, atracar and arribar
appear to be restricted to ships. Regarding the ‘Up/Onto G- Upwards’ path verbs, for
instance, encaramarse may be used for going onto a tree, and encumbrar for
reaching the top of a mountain; the verb subir could be used for these contexts as
well. Finally, in terms of ‘Into G’, acceder seems to be used in contexts where there
is some impediment for the Figure entering the Ground, and encerrar(se) denotes
that the Ground as container will restrain the Figure from going out. Thus, these two
path verbs might be said to be rich in implying and, possibly, in lexicalising force
dynamics (Talmy, 2000a: Chapter 7).
178
On the other hand, ‘After G’ path verbs in English (follow, hound, pursue and
shadow) surpass in number their Spanish counterparts (perseguir, seguir). As stated
earlier, hound, pursue and shadow seem to imply some kind of manner of motion
information; hound seems to emphasise the Figure’s relentless pursuit of the second
Figure (TFD); pursue seems to often imply that the chaser intends to capture or kill
the second Figure (CALD, TFD, MW, OED), but not necessarily; and shadow
appears to imply secretive motion (TFD, MW). Have these three verbs been
considered as manner verbs in our analysis, Spanish would have surpassed English
for this type of path as well.
As shown in the table above, both languages present the same number of path
verbs for the following types: ‘Change direction’ (Spanish desviar(se) ‘to divert, to
be diverted’, girar1 ‘to turn’, torcer(se)1 ‘to turn, to change direction’ and virar ‘(of
a vehicle, especially a ship) to swerve’; English divert, swerve, tack, turn2),
‘Pass/cross G’ (Spanish pasar ‘to go through, over, along’, atravesar ‘to cross, to go
through’, cruzar ‘to cross’; English cross, pass, traverse), and ‘Out of G’ (salir ‘to
exit’, exit).
Moreover, our data show that the most frequent types of path in both
languages are ‘Away from G’, ‘Up/Onto G – Upwards’, ‘To/towards G’ and ‘Down
from/to G – Downwards’. This suggests that these types of path (motion away
from/towards G and motion along the vertical axis) are basic spatial distinctions
which are frequently lexicalised in path verbs in both English and Spanish, and by
extension, we might predict that they might also be the most frequent path types for
other satellite- and verb-framed languages. Further research, however, would be
needed to test whether languages have a preference for lexicalising these types of
paths over others in their path verb lexicon. On the other hand, the least frequent type
of path found for English and Spanish is ‘Out of G’, which is encoded by just one
verb per language (exit, salir ‘to exit’). Interestingly enough, ‘Into G’ (motion into a
container), the opposite type of path of ‘Out of G’, is more frequent in both
languages, especially in Spanish, where 6 path verbs denoting motion into a Ground
were found (acceder ‘to gain access into’, adentrarse ‘to go into the interior part of’,
encerrar(se) ‘to put something, someone or oneself into an enclosed place’, entrar
179
‘to enter’, penetrar ‘to enter’, profundizar ‘to get into’). There is no apparent reason
why ‘Out of’ seems to be so disfavoured in lexicalisation.
With regard to the etymology of path verbs 23 , Spanish path verbs come
mostly from Latin, but the origin of other path verbs is traced back to French
(abandonar ‘to abandon’, abordar ‘to approach’, marcharse‘to leave’), Arabic
(atracar, encaramar(se)) and Caló (pirarse). English path verbs, on the other hand,
come mostly from Anglo-French and Middle French, which in turn come from Latin.
Some path verbs are from Anglo-French without any apparent influence of Latin
(such as recoil and return, which denote backwards motion), and some other verbs
are from Germanic origin (e.g., arise, leave, mount, rise, scatter). Therefore, some
English and Spanish verbs share their etymology (cf. Talmy, 1985: 72; 2000b), and
hence, they express the same types of path:
a.
‘Pass/cross G’: cross - cruzar, traverse - atravesar, pass - pasar
b.
‘Away from’: retreat - retirarse, desert - desertar, abandon - abandonar
c.
‘Into G’: enter - entrar, penetrate - penetrar.
d.
‘Up/onto G – Upwards’: scale - escalar, ascend - ascender
e.
‘Downwards: descend - descender
f.
‘Forwards’: advance - avanzar
g.
‘To/towards G’: arrive – arribar 24
h.
‘Back’: return – retornar
On other occasions, English and Spanish path verbs differ in their etymology. In
other words, we have found path verbs of Latin origin in each language which do not
seem to correspond to a path verb in the other. By way of illustration, English exit
(from Latin exire ‘to go out’ = ex- ‘out’ + ire ‘to go’); English stray, which denotes
23
Many of the path verbs from Latin origin were the result of the path prefixes becoming
phonologically fused to verb roots (usually encoding either Motion or Manner of motion), ultimately
arriving at monomorphemic path verbs (cf. Slobin, 2004; Talmy, 2000b).
24
As observed in dictionary definitions, the English verb arrive seems to be used for all types of
Figures (humans, animals, inanimates such as planes, ships, etc) whereas the use of the Spanish verb
arribar seems to be restricted to ships reaching port, and by extension, to people on ships reaching
port.
180
motion away from a given path (from Anglo-French estraier, from Vulgar Latin
extravagare = ex ‘outside’ + vagare ‘to wander’); English divert (from Middle
French and Latin; Middle French divertir, from Latin divertere ‘to turn in opposite
directions’); English pursue (from Anglo-French pursure, pursiure, from Latin
prosequi = pro- ‘forward’ + sequi ‘to follow’); Spanish elevar(se) 25 ‘to (cause to)
move upwards’ (from the Latin verb elevare and/or from the Latin adjective levis
‘light’); Spanish partir ‘to leave’ (from Latin partire); Spanish subir ‘to go up’ (from
the Latin verb subire, sub ‘under’ + ire ‘to go’); Spanish salir ‘to go out’ (from the
Latin manner verb salire ‘saltar’), etc. Finally, another interesting crosslinguistic
difference in the etymology of path verbs is the existence of a great number of
Spanish verbs which are made up of adverbs or nouns with or without prefixes
encoding direction. For example, acercar(se) from cerca ‘near, close’; adentrar(se)
from dentro ‘inside’; adelantar(se) from delante ‘in front of’; alejar(se) from lejos
‘far’; aproximar(se) from próximo ‘close’; distanciar(se) from distancia ‘distance’;
encumbrar from en + cumbre ‘peak, top of a mountain’. These verbs appear to
contribute as well to the larger size of the Spanish path verb lexicon, compared to the
English, in which no counterparts have been found.
On the whole, our research on the English and the Spanish path verb lexicons
has started bridging the gap in the existing literature. Our results suggest that though
the Spanish path verb lexicon is larger than the English path verb lexicon—
especially for some types of path—both languages are able to encode the same sort
of path information, as shown in the distribution of types of path across the two
languages. Differences across languages have been noticed in terms of the specific
contexts in which some Spanish path verbs might be used. Also, it has been pointed
out that, in both languages, some types of path seem to be more frequently
lexicalised in verbs whereas others may be dispreferred. Overall, our research
provides support for Özçalişkan’s (2004) claim that the path verb lexicons of both
satellite- and verb-framed languages form a closed lexical category that does not
present much elaboration, but it does not support her claim of comparable size.
25
In English, the verb elevate does exist, but it is an agentive verb of motion. That is why this verb
was not included in our corpus.
181
5.5. Manner verbs
As stated throughout the present work, a great deal of research (e.g., Berman &
Slobin, 1994; Mora-Gutierrez, 2001; Slobin, 1996a, 1996b, 1997, 2004, 2006) has
shown that the English manner-of-motion verb lexicon is highly rich whereas the
Spanish is less so. However, research has quite often failed to look at the type of
fine-grained manner information encoded in English and Spanish verbs from a
comparative point of view. In this section, we are interested in finding out whether
English and Spanish manner-of-motion verbs encode comparable manner details
despite the well attested fact that English manner verbs outnumber those of Spanish
(e.g., Slobin, 2004; Slobin, 2006). Moreover, we intend to discover the sorts of
manner details which are most productively expressed in manner verbs in each
language. Finally, our research also seeks to find out (a) whether the English manner
verb lexicon is equally rich and varied for all subdomains of motion (e.g., human
locomotion or motion using vehicles), and if not, (b) whether the Spanish manner
verb lexicon might be richer than the English for some particular subdomains.
With the purpose of providing a systematic analysis which permits
crosslinguistic comparisons, we opted for grouping manner-of-motion verbs in terms
of the two types of motion the verbs can generally denote: Self-agentive Motion and
Translational Motion. In addition, the manner categories which were listed in the
methodology section were included within the type of motion they pertain to. By
way of illustration, ‘Posture’ is a manner category which is considered as describing
self-contained motion, whereas ‘Motor-pattern’ (e.g., walk, run) typically describes
translational motion. The reader should bear in mind, as has been pointed out earlier,
that manner categories are mutually exclusive, that is to say, manner verbs generally
denote more than one fine-grained manner feature. For example, jog can be analysed
as motor pattern-run (‘Motor-pattern’), slow rate of motion (‘Rate’) and regular steps
(‘Characteristic use of lower body’); stroll as motor pattern-walk and state of the
Figure (relaxed), and so on. This raises some problems when grouping manner verbs
into the proposed manner categories. If we consider stroll for example, the question
that arises is: in which manner category should it be included? In ‘Motor pattern’?, in
‘State of the Figure? Or in a combination of the two? This last alternative would
require an extensive list of all the combinations of manner categories found in our
182
corpus, which, in our opinion, would make the comparison between the English and
the Spanish manner verb lexicons unmanageable and less feasible.
The other
alternative would be to include the verb into one manner category by taking into
account (a) whether dictionaries agree on one manner detail above all whereas they
were less clear about other manner features; (b) whether verbs denote a specific
motor pattern (walk, run, jump) and further manner details (e.g., ‘Rate’, ‘State of the
Figure’, ‘Characteristic use of lower body’) which just appear to provide further
specificity within each motor pattern, and (c) whether verbs denote contact between
the Figure and the Ground and other manner details which give semantic granularity
to verbs within this category. The latter is the option taken up for our analysis 26 .
Thus, by way of illustration, jog would be categorised in motor pattern-run, and
stroll in motor pattern-walk.
In the following subsections, we begin with the semantics of English manner
verbs, and then go on with the semantics of Spanish manner verbs. Finally, we
compare and contrast both manner verb lexicons in order to uncover crosslinguistic
differences and similarities.
5.5.1. English manner verbs
As shown in Section 5.3.1, in our English corpus of motion verbs, 276 manner verbs
(Motion + Manner) were found; these verbs amount to 85.33% of the English motion
verbs in our corpus. For ease of explanation, we first deal with manner verbs
typically denoting self-contained motion (22.83% of the English manner verbs), and
then with manner verbs which generally imply translational motion (77.17% of the
English manner verbs).
Table 5.7 shows the distribution of English manner verbs which express selfcontained motion across seven manner categories (i.e., the number of verbs within
26
Future empirical research would be needed to test the validity of our analysis, in particular to shed
some light on the issue of (a) whether some manner categories (e.g., ‘Motor pattern’, ‘Contact’) might
be more important than others manner features (e.g., ‘Rate’, ‘State of the Figure’) when categorising
certain verbs (i.e., some manner details might be seen as defining features for certain verbs, but not
for others), or (b) whether all manner categories are on equal footing in the semantics of manner-ofmotion verbs.
183
each manner category and their proportion relative to the whole corpus of English
manner verbs).
SELF-CONTAINED MOTION
SHAKE, SWING, VIBRATE
POSTURE
Bend, Twist, Curve
Vertical Orientation
Downwwards
Upwards
Horizontal Orientation
To one side
Unspecified
Roll - Unroll
REVOLVE, ROTATE, SPIN
UNSTEADY MOTION
UPSIDE DOWN
BOUNCE
ITERATIVE MOTION
TOTAL
TOTAL NUMBER OF MANNER VERBS
ENGLISH
#
%
18 6.52%
17 6.16%
6
6
4
2
2
2
1
2.17%
2.17%
1.45%
0.72%
0.72%
0.72%
0.36%
14
8
4
1
1
63
5.07%
2.90%
1.45%
0.36%
0.36%
22.83%
276
Table 5.7. Distribution of English manner verbs (Self-contained Motion)
To begin our discussion of manner verbs which typically express self-contained
motion, we start with those manner categories which are most frequently lexicalised
by English manner verbs:
a.
Shake, Swing, Vibrate (18 verbs, 6.52% of English manner verbs): flap, flick,
flutter, jig2, quake, quiver, rock, shake, shiver, shudder, sway, swing,
tremble, vibrate, wag, wave, wiggle, wobble.
This manner category includes swinging and oscillatory movements, in addition to
short, sudden and usually iterative movements of the Figure. Some verbs appear to
denote that the Figure shakes because of strong feelings or cold (e.g., quake (CALD,
TFD, MW); quiver, shudder, tremble (CALD, TFD, MW, OED)).
b.
Posture (17 verbs, 6.16% of English manner verbs):
184
Posture is a rich manner category as it denotes the different body positions assumed
by the human/animal body or by objects treated as comparable to the body. Postural
notions pertain to the vertical and horizontal dimension, that is, whether the Figure
ends up in a vertical (upwards or downwards) or in a horizontal orientation; but they
also relate to whether the Figure bends, twist its body, coils, uncoils, moves its body
to one side, etc. Therefore, this manner category might be subdivided into the
following groups:
b.1. Bend, Twist and Curve: bend, bow, slouch, twist, wind, wriggle.
b.2. Vertical orientation – upwards: arise, rise.
b.3. Vertical orientation – downwards: crouch, kneel, squat, stoop.
b.4. Horizontal orientation: lean, recline.
b.5. To one side: careen1, dodge1.
b.6. Unspecified orientation: stretch.
Among this group of posture verbs, bend, bow, careen1, lean, recline, twist and wind
seem to be also used agentively, that is, when an external agent causes the Figure to
assume a certain body position or orientation.
c.
Revolve, Rotate, Spin (14 verbs, 5.07% of English manner verbs): bowl, coil,
pirouette, reel2, revolve, roll, rotate, spin, swirl, trundle, turn1, whirl, twine.
As Levin & Rappaport-Hovav (1992) and Levin (1993) point out for Roll verbs (i.e.,
verbs denoting motion around an axis), verbs within this category can denote both
agentive motion and non-agentive motion, and when accompanied by a prepositional
phrase they can depict translational motion as well. Within this group of verbs,
pirouette does not seem to be used agentively.
d.
Unsteady Motion (8 verbs, 2.90% of English manner verbs): coggle, dodder,
flounder, lurch, stagger, teeter, totter, reel1.
This group of verbs is of a miscellaneous nature. According to dictionary definitions,
some of these verbs seem to denote self-contained motion (coggle, flounder and
lurch), whereas others seem to denote both self-contained and translational motion
(dodder, lurch, stagger, teeter, totter and reel1). When the latter group of verbs is
used with inanimate Figures, it seems to depict self-contained motion. In contrast,
185
when used with animate Figures, these verbs seem to be able to describe both types
of motion (self-contained and translational); in other words, the Figure can move
unsteadily without changing its location, or it can move in the same fashion while
changing its location.
e.
Upside down (4 verbs, 1.45% of English manner verbs): capsize, flip, keel,
overturn.
These four verbs can also be used agentively, that is, an agent can make the Figure
turn upside down or turn over.
f.
Bounce (1 verb, 0.36% of English manner verbs): bounce.
This verb denotes that the Figure rebounds or bounds after hitting a surface (CALD,
TFD, MW, OED). Bounce might also be used agentively.
g.
Iterative Motion (1 verb, 0.36% of English manner verbs): bob.
This verb denotes that the Figure moves up and down repeatedly or rebounds.
With regard to the manner categories pertaining to translational motion, Table
5.8 offers the general distribution of manner verbs, as well as their percentage in
relation to the manner verb lexicon.
186
ENGLISH
#
%
65 23.55%
TRANSLATIONAL MOTION
MOTOR PATTERN
Walk
Jump
Run
VEHICLE/INSTRUMENT
RATE
Fast
Increase
Slow
Decrease
DANCE
CONTACT BETWEEN F & G
Body close to the ground
Smooth motion
Slight contact
Uncontrolled motion
47
11
7
17.03%
3.99%
2.54%
52
35
18.84%
12.68%
29
3
2
1
10.51%
1.09%
0.72%
0.36%
19
11
6.88%
3.99%
4
4
2
1.45%
1.45%
0.72%
1
0.36%
6
6
3
3
2.17%
2.17%
1.09%
1.09%
2
1
0.72%
0.36%
3
2
1.09%
0.72%
Energy-high
Energy-low
1
1
0.36%
0.36%
OBSTRUCTED MOTION
LEISURELY MOTION
SMOOTH MOTION
MOTION IN FILE
MOTION IN SPORTS
NOISY MOTION
UNCONTROLLED MOTION
AWKWARD MOTION
NO AIM IN MOTION
CHAR. USE OF LOWER BODY
USE OF ONE’S HANDS/LEGS
NO AIM IN MOTION
TOTAL
2
2
1
1
1
1
0.72%
0.72%
0.36%
0.36%
0.36%
0.36%
213
77.17%
276
FURTIVE MOTION
PLAYFUL MOTION
PATH SHAPE
OTHERS
Gradual stages
Travel with one's belongings
Trailing clothes
STATE OF FIGURE
FORCED MOTION
Table 5.8. Distribution of English manner verbs (Translational Motion)
187
As shown in the table, for some manner-of-motion categories (from ‘Uncontrolled
Motion’ to ‘No aim in Motion’) no verb seems to be found. This should not be taken
to indicate that English has no verb lexicalising these notions, but rather that verbs
that encode these manner details have instead been grouped in other manner
categories, which might be more relevant for the verb’s semantics, such as ‘Motor
pattern’. Once again, we should remark that no claim is being made about the
superior status of some manner categories over others; our methodology does not
allow us to make such claims. However, our analysis proves fruitful as it might be
taken as a starting point for further experimental research aimed at unveiling the
psychological validity of our semantic analysis both in terms of (a) whether the verbs
encode the proposed semantic information and (b) whether some manner features
might be more relevant than others in a verb’s semantics.
Our analysis shows that the majority of manner verbs in English encode
‘Motor pattern’ (walk, run and jump), ‘Vehicle/Instrument’, ‘Rate of motion’,
‘Dance’ and ‘Contact between the Figure and the Ground’, whereas other manner
categories seem to be less favoured for lexicalisation by themselves (i.e., they seem
occur together with other manner details). We begin our examination of manner
verbs with those manner categories which seem to be most frequently lexicalised in
the English manner verb lexicon:
a.
Motor pattern (65 verbs, 23.55% of English manner verbs)
a.1. Walk (47 verbs, 17.03% of English manner verbs): amble, clump, gimp,
goosestep, hike, hobble, limp, march1, march2, meander2, mince, mosey, pace, pad,
paddle3, parade, perambulate, plod, promenade, prowl, ramble, roam, rove, sashay,
saunter, shamble, shuffle, sleepwalk, slog, somnambulate, stalk2, stomp, stride,
stroll, strut, stump, swagger, tiptoe, toddle, traipse, tramp, trek, troop, trudge,
waddle, walk, wander.
This heterogeneous group of verbs, which is defined by dictionaries as ways of
walking, appears to denote specific information about the following manner
categories:
188
a.1.a. ‘State of the Figure’ (19 verbs): in amble the Figure is relaxed and
walks around at a slow rate (CALD, LLA, TFD, MW, OED); in gimp, limp and
hobble, the Figure is injured or physically impaired, and as a consequence, it may
move unsteadily and in an effortful way (CALD, LLA, TFD, MW, OED); march2
denotes that the Figure walks in a determined or angry way; pace encodes that the
Figure is anxious or worried (CALD, LLA, OED); parade is defined as to walk
proudly around as part of a public celebration or display (CALD, LLA, TFD, MW,
OED); hike, promenade, saunter and stroll denote that the Figure takes a walk for
relaxation and pleasure (CALD, TFD, MW, OED); sashay, strut and swagger denote
that the Figure walks in a proud and confident way (CALD, TFD, MW, OED); in
somnambulate and sleepwalk, the Figure walks while asleep (CALD, TFD, MW,
OED); stalk2 encodes the proud or angry attitude of the Figure (CALD, TFD, MW,
OED); stomp and stump denote that the Figure walks with heavy steps so as to show
its anger (CALD, LLA, TFD, MW).
a.1.b. ‘No aim in motion’ (7 verbs): meander2, mosey, ramble, roam, rove,
traipse and wander generally denote that the Figure walks from one place to another
aimlessly (CALD, TFD, MW, OED). Moreover, mosey is also defined as a leisurely
motion (TFD, MW, OED). Regarding traipse, Talmy (1985: 137) noted that traipse
encodes a negative attitudinal content; in contrast, dictionaries do not provide any
information about the speaker’s attitude towards the event designated by this verb.
a.1.c. ‘Forced Motion’ (4 verbs): plod, trudge and slog denote that the Figure
moves with difficulty and with great effort, at a slow pace, usually with heavy steps
(CALD, TFD, MW, OED). Clump seems to encode this information together with
information about the noisy motion (CALD, LLA, TFD, MW, OED).
a.1.d. ‘Characteristic use of lower body’ (7 verbs): goosestep denotes that the
Figure moves with regular steps and with the legs lifted high and straight (CALD,
MW, OED). March1 denotes that the Figure moves with regular steps, usually in a
military way (CALD, TFD, MW, OED). Mince means to walk with small delicate
steps as in an affected manner (CALD, TFD, MW, OED). Tramp seems to denote
that the Figure walks with heavy steps, but unlike trudge, plod and slog, this verb
does not seem to encode ‘Forced Motion’ (CALD, TFD, MW, OED). Shuffle denotes
that the Figure moves slowly without lifting the feet from the ground (CALD, LLA,
189
TFD, MW, OED) and it might encode some information about the sound it makes
(LLA, OED). Tiptoe denotes that the Figure is walking on tiptoes (CALD, LLA,
TFD, MW, OED), and it might also denote that the Figure does not want to be
noticed (LLA, MW). Finally, stride denotes that the Figure walks with long steps.
a.1.e. ‘Unsteady Motion’ (2 verbs): paddle3 and toddle encode that the Figure
walks unsteadily (MW, OED). On most occasions, unsteady motion is expressed
together with further semantic information in walking verbs (e.g., limp, hobble).
a.1.f. ‘Awkward Motion’ (1 verb): shamble encodes the awkward and slow
walking of the Figure (CALD, TFD, MW, OED). Moreover, this verb might denote
unsteady motion (TFD, OED).
a.1.g. ‘Furtive Motion’ (1 verb): prowl denotes that the Figure walks around a
place stealthily, so as not to be noticed (CALD, TFD, MW, OED).
a.1.h. ‘Swinging motion’ (1 verb): waddle is defined as a way of walking
characterised by the Figure’s swinging (CALD, TFD, MW, OED).
To finish, unclear definitions are provided for pad, perambulate, trek and
troop. Pad is defined by LLA and OED as a quiet way of walking, usually without
shoes, but it also seem to denote walking with difficulty (e.g., through mud) (TFD)
and just to journey on foot (OED). Perambulate seems to be an old fashioned verb
which denotes ‘Leisurely Motion’, similar to stroll (CALD, TFD, MW); however, it
is also defined as ‘to go on foot’ (TFD, MW, OED). Lastly, trek is defined as a way
of walking, but dictionaries do not agree on whether it is an arduous journey on foot
(TFD, MW), a long walk over hills, mountains (CALD, LLA) or whether to journey
by ox-wagon (OED).
a.2. Jump (11 verbs, 3.99%): bound, capriole, curvet, hop, jump, leap, leapfrog, pronk, skip, somersault, vault.
Within this group of verbs, capriole and curvet usually imply that the Figure is a
horse, and pronk seems to be used for antelopes, springboks, etc and denotes to jump
straight up (TFD, OED). Bound and leap might denote that the Figure takes high and
large jumps (CALD, LLA). The verb hop, when the Figure is a human, means to
jump on one leg (CALD, LLA, OED), whereas, when the Figure is an animal
(rabbits, grasshoppers, etc), it means to jump on two or more legs (CALD, OED).
190
Leap-frog is a verb coming from a children’s game in which some children bend
down and another child jumps over them (CALD, TFD, OED). Skip seems to denote
that the Figures jumps after each step (CALD, LLA), hops on alternating feet (TFD,
MW) or uses a rope while jumping (OED). Somersault refers to an acrobatic jump by
which the Figure turns over (CALD, TFD, OED). Lastly, vault denotes that the
Figure uses its hands or an instrument in its jumping movement (CALD, LLA, MW,
OED).
On the whole, this category seems to be much connected with self-contained
motion in the sense that when the Figure jumps, hops, pronks, etc it does not
necessarily changes its location. Therefore, this category might be said to be defined
by the rising from the ground using the legs.
a.3. Run (7 verbs, 2.54%): gallop1, jog, lope, run, scamper, sprint, trot.
Gallop1 and trot usually refer to the running of a horse or a four legged animal. In
addition, these verbs denote high speed in motion for gallop and a slow rate of
motion for trot. Jog denotes a slow run at a regular speed (CALD, TFD, MW, OED).
According to CALD and OED, lope denotes that the Figure takes long steps in
running. Scamper might denote that the Figure takes small steps while running
(CALD, LLA). Sprint means to move at top speed for a brief period of time (CALD,
TFD, MW, OED).
In light of these data, apparently ‘Jump’ includes more verbs than ‘Run’.
However, as we will point out below, the fact that dictionaries do not agree on
whether some manner verbs (e.g., bolt, canter1, dash, dart, hurry, hurtle, nip, rush,
scoot, scurry, scuttle, spring, streak, whisk, whiz(z), zoom) are or are not running
verbs led us to place these verbs into the category ‘Rate’. This might be the
explanation for the inferior number of verbs for ‘Run’ as compared to ‘Jump’.
b.
Vehicle/Instrument (52 verbs, 18.84% of English manner verbs)
b.1. On an animal: canter2, gallop2.
b.2. On/in a vehicle
191
b.2.1. Unspecified vehicle: cruise, drive, journey, motor, ride.
b.2.2. Specific vehicle/instrument: balloon, bicycle, bike, boat, bobsleigh,
bobsled, bus, cab, canoe, caravan, chariot, coach, cycle, dogsled, ferry,
gondola/e, helicopter, jeep, moped, motorbike, motorcycle, parachute, raft,
rickshaw, rocket1, rollerblade, ship, shuttle, skate, skateboard, ski, sledge,
sled, sleigh, taxi, toboggan, tram, trolley, truck, yacht.
b.2.3. Part of a vehicle: oar, paddle2, pedal, sail, row, wheel.
b. 3. On/in an instrument: seesaw.
This wide category groups verbs denoting motion on animals, in/on vehicles and
in/on instruments. Canter and gallop denote that the Figure is moving on a horse
which is cantering or galloping. Within the group of motion on/in vehicles, we
observe three main types of verbs: (a) verbs which lexicalise a specific vehicle or
instrument (denominal verbs); (b) verbs which imply the use of some vehicles and (c)
verbs which lexicalise parts of some vehicles, and, as a consequence, they refer to
motion using these vehicles. In terms of the vehicles which are implied by verbs,
cruise implies a (luxury) ship, but the rest of the verbs can imply a wider range of
vehicles (e.g., a car, truck, motorbike, bike, etc). The latter group of verbs (oar,
paddle2, pedal, sail, row, wheel) might be considered as metonymic verbs as a
PART of a vehicle stands for the WHOLE vehicle (cf. Cifuentes-Honrubia, 1999,
2000a, 2000b; Lakoff & Johnson, 1982: 38, Lakoff & Johnson, 1999;).
When analysing this group of verbs, it was observed that some vehicle verbs
could display agentive motion, that is, the vehicle can be used to move entities from
one place to another, whereas other vehicle verbs did not seem to be capable of
denoting caused motion—at least according to dictionary definitions. Moreover, we
became aware of the inconsistencies across dictionaries in this regard. To remind the
reader, in our analysis we coded that semantic information which was present in the
majority of the dictionaries employed. Thus, in the analysis of vehicle verbs, when
three out of the four dictionaries (CALD, TFD, MW, OED) agreed on that a given
vehicle verb displayed agentive motion, we coded ‘AM’ in the column for Agentive
Motion; similarly we coded ‘NO’ when they agree on that they do not express
192
agentive motion. Moreover, as can be seen in Appendix 1, ‘AM?’ indicates that two
or just one out of four dictionaries stated that a given vehicle verb could be used for
agentive or caused motion.
After a closer look at vehicle verbs, we found that all dictionaries agree that
(a) bus, ferry, parachute, ship, shuttle and truck can display agentive behaviour or
caused motion, and that (b) bobsleigh, bobsled, cab, dogsled, gondola/e, jeep, kayak,
moped, motorcycle/bike, rickshaw, rollerblade, skate, skateboard, ski and yacht can
only denote that the Figure uses these vehicles or instruments as means of
locomotion. This led us to hypothesise that large vehicles might display both
agentive and self-agentive motion, as they can transport people, goods, etc, whereas
small vehicles might just be used for Figures as means of their own locomotion.
c.
Rate of Motion (35 verbs, 12.68% of English manner verbs): accelerate, bolt,
canter1, careen2, career, clip, dart, dash, dawdle, decelerate, flit, hare, hasten, hurl,
hurry, hurtle, lumber, nip, pop, race, roar, rush, scoot, scramble, scud, scurry,
scuttle, shoot, speed, spring, streak, tear, whisk, whiz, zoom.
This category includes a wide variety of verbs. All of them encode information about
the speed of motion, and some of them encode additional manner details. Within this
category, 29 verbs denote a fast rate of motion (e.g., bolt, canter1, careen2, career,
clip, dart, dash, hurry, etc), 3 verbs express an increase in the rate (namely,
accelerate, hasten, hurry), 2 verbs denote a slow rate of motion (dawdle, lumber),
and one verb denotes a decrease in the rate of motion (decelerate).
It should be pointed out that many of these verbs might have been grouped in
other categories. Hurl and hurtle could have been included into ‘Forced Motion’ as
the motion depicted by these verbs requires an effort to be performed. Scurry and
scuttle might also have been categorised into ‘Motor pattern-run’ (i.e., some of the
dictionaries defined them as running verbs); these verbs, moreover, seem to denote
that the Figure takes quick short steps (CALD, TFD, MW, OED). Scramble might
have also been categorised into ‘Forced Motion’, as it denotes that the Figure moves
or climbs quickly with difficulty using its hands and legs (CALD, TFD, MW, OED).
Whiz(z) and zoom might also have been included in ‘Noisy Motion’ as they encode
such semantic information (TFD, MW, OED) besides encoding ‘Rate-fast’(CALD,
193
TFD, MW, OED). On other occasions, we opted for including verbs in the ‘Rate’
category when dictionaries disagreed with respect to further details of manner of
motion. By way of illustration, careen2 and career denote fast speed, but dictionaries
do not agree on whether they also express ‘Uncontrolled Motion’ or ‘Unsteady
Motion’ (that is why in our coding we added a question mark ‘?’ to some of the
manner details). The same applies to other verbs such as hare and scud; by looking at
dictionary definitions it is not clear whether hare denotes ‘Motor pattern-run’ and
‘Uncontrolled Motion’ and whether scud denotes ‘Smooth Motion’ besides encoding
‘Rate’.
d.
Dance (19 verbs, 6.88% of English manner verbs): boogie, bop, cancan,
conga, dance, foxtrot, jig1, jitterbug, jive, moonwalk2, polka, quickstep, rumba,
samba, squaredance, tango, tapdance, twist2 and waltz.
This group of manner verbs means ‘perform the dance named by the verb’. It should
be noted that not all dictionaries offered definitions for these denominal verbs.
Generally speaking, these verbs might be thought to denote self-contained motion as
the Figure does not necessarily change its overall location. However, as has been
noted in the literature (e.g., Narasimhan, 2003; Narasimhan et al, 2006), dance verbs
can combine with prepositional phrases expressing direction, and thus, they can
easily convey the Figure’s translational motion.
e.
Contact between the Figure and the Ground: crawl, creep2, glide, grovel,
slide, slip1, slither, skid, skim, skitter and sweep.
This group of verbs expresses that (a) the Figure’s body is close to the Ground
(crawl, creep2, grovel and sweep); (b) the Figure moves smoothly over/along the
Ground (glide, slide, slip, slither); (c) the Figure loses control over its motion
over/along the Ground (skid); or (d) the Figure is just in slight contact with the
Ground (skim, skitter). Moreover, some of these verbs encode further semantic
information. For instance, slither also encodes that the shape of the path that the
Figure follows is similar to those of reptiles (twisted, curved shape of path); skim and
skitter denote fast speed as well; and grovel denotes that the Figure has a specific
state of mind (humiliated).
194
f.
Furtive Motion (6 verbs, 2.17% of English manner verbs): skulk, slip2,
creep1, glide2, sidle, sneak.
These verbs encode that the Figure moves in a secretive way, so as to avoid being
seen, heard or noticed. Some of these verbs, namely, creep1, sidle and sneak, seem to
imply that the Figure is walking—as shown by some of the definitions from LLA.
However, dictionaries do not usually offer much information about the motor pattern
as they tend to define these verbs as ‘move furtively’ (CALD, TFD, MW, OED).
g.
Playful Motion (6 verbs, 2.17% of English manner verbs): caper, cavort,
frisk, frolic, gambol, romp.
Once again, dictionaries do not agree on the specific motor pattern that these verbs
encode 27 . Therefore, they were categorised outside the ‘Motor-pattern’ manner
category.
h.
Path shape (3 verbs, 1.09% of English manner verbs): meander, zigzag,
circle.
Meander denotes that the Figure follows a curved or winding path; zigzag, a
zigzagged course; and circle, in a circle around something. This category might be
problematic as it could be argued that Path shape is a path parameter instead of a
manner parameter. Further research is needed to shed light on this issue.
i.
Others (3 verbs, 1.09% of English manner verbs): backpack, edge, inch.
The first encodes that the Figure is travelling with its belongings in a backpack. Edge
and inch denote that the Figure moves in gradual stages, or steps, or gradual
movements.
j.
State of the Figure (3 verbs, 1.09% of English manner verbs): storm, prance,
and tittup.
27
As we will see in Chapter 6, a study on categorisation of human locomotion verbs provides
psycholinguistic validity to our semantic analysis for these verbs; namely, they are not rated as good
examples of any motor pattern.
195
These three motion verbs have been analysed as expressing the psychological state of
the Figure; in storm, the Figure is annoyed and seems to show its anger by moving
violently (CALD, TFD, MW, OED); in prance and tittup, the Figure moves in a
showing-off manner. The dictionary definitions are not clear about the motor pattern
implied in these motion verbs. It is not clear whether the Figure is walking in storm
and tittup, or whether it is walking, running or jumping in prance.
k.
Forced Motion (2 verbs, 0.72% of English manner verbs): clamber, throw.
Clamber denotes that the Figure moves with difficulty and effort using its hands and
legs. On the other hand, throw denotes a high-energetic and quick motion, which can
be both agentive and self-agentive.
l.
Obstructed Motion (2 verbs, 0.72% of English manner verbs): trip, stumble.
These two verbs encode that the Figure hs an obstacle in its way while walking or
running (CALD, TFD, MW, OED).
m.
Leisurely Motion (2 verbs, 0.72% of English manner verbs): tour, travel.
n.
Smooth Motion (1 verb, 0.36% of English manner verbs): float.
Smooth Motion is a manner category related to translational motion; the Figure
moves smoothly with respect to the Ground which, in this case, might be either air or
water. However, this verb, like its Spanish counterpart (as we will see), do not seem
to imply that the Figure is moving along a path unless a prepositional phrase
encoding direction follows the verb.
o.
Motion in file (1 verb, 0.36% of English manner verbs): file.
p.
Motion in sports (1 verb, 0.36% of English manner verbs): dribble
q.
Noisy Motion (1 verb, 0.36% of English manner verbs): thunder.
This verb is defined in CALD and OED as a verb of motion, which is characterised
by its sound or noise. Here it is necessary to point out that the English manner-of-
196
motion verb lexicon has more verbs expressing this sort of manner information, but
they usually encode other manner details as well. For example, the verbs roar, whiz
and zoom have been grouped in the category ‘Rate of Motion’. An alternative
analysis would have been to include these three verbs here.
5.5.2. Spanish manner verbs
In our Spanish corpus of motion verbs, we found 123 manner-of-motion verbs which
amount to the 47.86% of the Spanish corpus. 50 manner verbs (i.e., 40.65% of the
Spanish manner lexicon) have been grouped in terms of categories which typically
express self-contained motion, whereas 73 manner verbs (i.e., 59.35% of the Spanish
manner verb lexicon) encode manner details which are generally associated with
translational motion.
Table 5.9 shows the distribution of Spanish manner verbs which express selfcontained motion across seven manner categories.
POSTURE
Upwards
Downwwards
Bend, Twist, Curve
Unspecified Orientation
Roll - Unroll
To one side
SPANISH
#
%
28 22.76%
11
5
6
5
5
3
3
1
8.94%
4.07%
4.88%
4.07%
4.07%
2.44%
2.44%
0.81%
SHAKE, SWING, VIBRATE
BOUNCE
ITERATIVE MOTION
UNSTEADY MOTION
UPSIDE DOWN
11
5
2
2
2
8.94%
4.07%
1.63%
1.63%
1.63%
TOTAL
50
40.65%
123
Table 5.9. Distribution of Spanish manner verbs (Self-contained Motion)
197
As shown above, manner verbs in Spanish do not distribute uniformly across
categories; in our Spanish corpus, it has been found that the majority of manner verb
which expresses self-contained motion lexicalised postural notions (i.e., 28 verbs out
of 50):
a.
Posture (28 verbs, 22.76% of Spanish manner verbs):
As has already been pointed out, Posture is a rich manner category denoting the
different body positions assumed by the human/animal body or by objects treated as
comparable to the body. Like in English, posture verbs might be grouped into the
following categories:
a.1. Vertical - downwards: agachar(se) ‘to (cause to) crouch’, agazaparse ‘to
crouch, to hide oneself’, arrodillar(se) ‘to (cause to) kneel down’, asentar(se) and
sentar(se)‘to (cause to) sit down’, inclinar(se) ‘to (cause to) incline, bend, bow’
a.2. Vertical - upwards: alzar(se) ‘to put up, to lift up; to rise’, empinar(se)
‘to (cause to) stand up’, encabritarse ‘to rear up’, erguir(se) ‘to (cause to) straighten,
stand up’, levantar(se) ‘to (cause to) stand up’.
a.3. Horizontal: reclinar(se) ‘to lean’, recostar(se) ‘to (cause to) lean or to
lay/lie down’, acostar(se) ‘to lay down, to lie down’, echarse2 ‘to lie down?,
tender(se) ‘to (cause to) stretch, to lay/lie down’. Except for reclinar(se), which
denotes that the Figure is leaning back in a nearly horizontal position, all these verbs
seem to mean that the Figure’s body ends up in a horizontal position.
a.4. Bend, Twist and Curve: acurrucarse ‘to curl up’, arquear(se) ‘to (cause
to) bend (oneself)’,
curvar(se) ‘to (cause to) curve, bend’, encorvar(se) ‘to (cause
to) bend, to curve’, torcer(se)2 ‘to (cause to) bend’.
a.5. Unspecified orientation: enderezar(se) ‘to (cause to) straighten, to
become straight’, estirar(se) ‘to (cause to) stretch out’, extender(se) ‘to (cause to)
stretch’. These verbs do not specify any information about the orientation the
Figure’s body at the end of the motion.
a.6. Roll- Unroll: enrollar(se) ‘to (cause to) roll’, enroscar(se) ‘to (cause to)
coil’, desenroscar(se) ‘to (cause to) uncoil’.
a.7. To one side: ladear(se) ‘to slant, to lean’. This verb denotes that the
Figure moves its body to one side; much like the English verb dodge1, it might be
198
used in contexts that imply that the Figure moves its body to one side in order to
avoid something.
In general, as Talmy pointed out, Spanish posture verbs denote agentive
motion, but when they incorporate the reflexive pronoun ‘se’, they come to denote
self-contained motion (animates) and non-agentive motion (inanimates). In the
category of posture verbs, four verbs which can only be pronominal (and thus, selfagentive) when expressing postural notions are also found: acurrucarse ‘to curl up’,
agazaparse ‘to crouch, to hide oneself’, echarse ‘to lie down’, encabritarse ‘to rear
up’.
The rest of the verbs which express self-contained motion belong to six other
manner categories. Unlike ‘Posture’, the following manner categories do not seem to
be frequently lexicalised in the Spanish manner verb lexicon:
b.
Shake, Swing, Vibrate (11 verbs, 8.94% of Spanish manner verbs): agitar(se)
‘to (cause to) shake, to move about’, balancear(se) ‘to (cause to) swing’,
campanear ‘to swing’, estremecer(se) ‘to (cause to) tremble, shiver’,
mecer(se) ‘to (cause to) swing, rock’, ondear ‘to undulate, to sway’, oscillar
‘to oscillate, to swing’, sacudir(se) ‘to shake, to shake oneself’, temblar ‘to
shiver, to tremble’, tiritar ‘to shiver, to tremble’, vibrar ‘to vibrate’.
This manner category includes (a) short, sudden movements of the Figure which
might be caused by fear or cold (e.g., estremecer(se), temblar, tiritar), and (b)
swinging and oscillatory movements (e.g., balancear(se), campanear, oscilar).
c.
Revolve, Rotate, Spin (5 verbs, 4.07% of Spanish manner verbs): caracolear
‘(of a horse) to turn around’, girar2 ‘to (cause to) rotate, spin’, piruetear ‘to
pirouette’, rodar ‘to roll’, rotar ‘to rotate’.
Within this group, only girar2 can be used as an agentive verb. Moreover, it is
important to remark that rodar ‘to roll’ is defined by DUE and DRAE as a verb
which can or can not denote a change of location; in other words, rodar may encode
both self-contained and translational motion.
199
d.
Bounce (2 verbs, 1.63% of Spanish manner verbs): botar ‘to (cause to)
bounce, rebound’, rebotar ‘to bounce’.
Botar can be an agentive verb whereas rebotar does not seem to allow this usage
(DUE, DRAE). The Figures of these verbs are typically balls.
e.
Iterative Motion (2 verbs, 1.63% of Spanish manner verbs): apisonar ‘to roll
flat by moving repeteadly over something, put one's feet down on the ground
repeatedly’, traquetear 28 ‘to (cause to) move repeatedly, to rattle’.
f.
Unsteady Motion (2 verbs, 1.63% of Spanish manner verbs): tambalearse ‘to
move unsteadily as if it is going to fall’, vacilar ‘to move unsteadily’.
Unlike in English, no verb denoting ‘Upside Down Motion’ was found in our corpus
of Spanish motion verbs.
In terms of manner categories pertaining to translational motion, Table 5.10
shows the general distribution of manner verbs, as well as their proportion in relation
to the Spanish manner verb lexicon. For ease of illustration, the table is presented on
the following page.
28
Traquetear also seems to encode some noise as result of the Figure’s movement.
200
SPANISH
#
%
31 25.20%
MOTOR PATTERN
Walk
Run
Jump
VEHICLE/INSTRUMENT
RATE
Increase
Decrease
Fast
Slow
PATH SHAPE
FORCED MOTION
Energy-high
Energy-low
DANCE
Smooth motion
Uncontrolled motion
Slight contact
OBSTRUCTED MOTION
NOISY MOTION
SMOOTH MOTION
LEISURELY MOTION
STATE OF FIGURE
MOTION IN FILE
MOTION IN SPORTS
PLAYFUL MOTION
OTHERS
Trailing clothes
Gradual stages
AWKWARD MOTION
FURTIVE MOTION
NO AIM IN MOTION
UNCONTROLLED MOTION
USE OF ONE’S HANDS/LEGS
TOTAL
24
4
3
19.51%
3.25%
2.44%
14
4
11.38%
3.25%
3
1
2.44%
0.81%
4
3
3.25%
2.44%
3
2.44%
3
3
2.44%
2.44%
2
1
1.63%
0.81%
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1.63%
1.63%
0.81%
0.81%
0.81%
0.81%
0.81%
0.81%
0.81%
1
0.81%
73
59.35%
123
Table 5.10. Distribution of Spanish manner verbs (Translational Motion)
201
As shown in the table, the majority of manner verbs in our Spanish corpus encode
‘Motor pattern’ (walk, run and jump) and ‘Vehicle/Instrument’, whereas other
manner categories seem to be less favoured for lexicalisation by themselves (though
they might combine with other manner details). We begin with the manner categories
which seem to be most frequently lexicalised in the Spanish manner verb lexicon:
a.
Motor pattern (31 verbs, 25.20% of Spanish manner verbs)
a.1. Walk (24 verbs, 19.51%): andar ‘to walk’, ambular ‘to wander about’,
anadear ‘to walk like a duck, to duck walk’, caminar ‘to walk’, chancletear ‘to walk
noisily using flip-flops’, cojear ‘to limp’, contonearse ‘to walk swaying one’s hips in
a proud way’, deambular ‘to walk around’, divagar ‘to wander’, errar ‘to wander
about’, gatear1 ‘to crawl’, haldear ‘to walk quickly moving one’s skirt/dress’,
marchar ‘to march’, noctambular ‘to walk around at night’, pasear ‘to walk for
pleasure’, patear2 ‘to go on foot around a place’, renquear ‘to limp’, reptar ‘to crawl
or to move like a reptile’, trotar1 ‘of a person to trot’, vagabundear ‘to wander’,
vagar ‘to wander’, zancajear ‘to walk repeatedly from one place to another’,
zanquear1 ‘to walk with crooked legs’, zanquear2 ‘to stride’.
a.2. Run (4 verbs, 3.25%): correr ‘to run’, corretear ‘to run about in a lively
or playful way’, esprintar ‘to sprint’, galopar1 ‘to gallop’
a.3. Jump (3 verbs, 2.44%): saltar ‘to jump’, cabriolar ‘to caper about, to
capriole’, brincar ‘to jump’.
Within this manner category, it can be observed that the vast majority of verbs refer
to ways of walking over ways of running and jumping. Unlike in English, which
carves up these three motor patterns in a more fine-grained or more granular way,
Spanish manner verbs do not encode as much semantic information regarding the
way the Figure moves or changes its location. Regarding the sort of manner details
which are encoded in walking verbs in our Spanish corpus, we find the following
features:
202
a.1.a ‘No aim in motion’ (7 verbs): ambular, deambular, divagar, errar,
vagabundear and vagar ‘to wander’; noctambular ‘to walk around at night’ also
encodes ‘Night time’.
a.1.b. ‘Characteristic use of lower body’ (3 verbs): marchar ‘to march’,
implying regular steps in the motion; zanquear1 ‘to walk with crooked legs’;
zanquear2 ‘to stride’, i.e., long steps).
a.1.c. ‘State of the Figure’ (2 verbs): contonearse ‘to walk swaying one’s hips
in a proud way’, and pasear ‘to walk for pleasure, to stroll’. As we did for English,
we grouped verbs encoding the fact that the Figure walks in a leisurely manner into
‘State of Figure’.
a.1.d. ‘Forced Motion’ + ‘State of the Figure (injured)’ (2 verbs): cojear,
renquear ‘to limp, to walk with a limp’.
a.1.e. ‘Rate-fast’ (2 verbs): haldear ‘to walk quickly moving one’s
skirt/dress’; trotar1 defined by dictionaries as a fast walk for both humans and
animals.
a.1.f. ‘Noisy Motion’ (1 verb): chancletear ‘to walk noisily using flip-flops’.
a.1.g. ‘Use of one’s hands/legs’ (1 verb): gatear1 ‘to crawl 29 , to walk using
one’s hands and/or legs’)
a.1.h.‘Contact between the Figure and the Ground’ (1 verb): reptar ‘to crawl
like a reptile’, that is, to walk dragging one’s body.
a.1.i. ‘Swinging motion’ (1 verb): anadear ‘to duckwalk’
a.1.j. ‘Iterative motion’ (1 verb): zancajear ‘to walk repeatedly from one
place to another’.
Andar and caminar simply denote to move on foot, using oneself as means of
locomotion. Thus, these two verbs might be considered hyperonyms of this category.
Finally, patear2 denotes to go on foot and it seems to be used in contexts where the
Figure has been walking over a large area for a long time. This verb does not seem to
fit nicely in any of the categories presented above.
29
Unlike English crawl, which is defined as the Figure moving close to the ground, the Spanish verb
gatear is defined as a way of walking (DUE, DRAE).
203
In terms of running verbs, apart from the hyperonym correr, three verbs are
found in our Spanish corpus: one of them encodes ‘Playful Motion’ (corretear),
another expresses the Figure’s fast rate for a brief period of time (esprintar), and the
third, galopar1 ‘to gallop’, expresses running when the Figure is a horse. Finally,
with respect to jumping verbs, two verbs besides the hyperonym saltar are found.
One of them seems to be used only for horses (cabriolar ‘to capriole’), and the other,
brincar, denotes the same motion as saltar ‘to jump, to push oneself into the air’
(DUE, DRAE). According to the dictionary definitions, jumping verbs seem to refer
to self-contained motion; a Figure can jump without changing its location. However,
if these verbs are followed by prepositional phrases encoding location or direction,
they can also express translational motion.
b.
Vehicle/Instrument (14 verbs, 11.38% of Spanish manner verbs)
b.1. On an animal: cabalgar ‘to ride a horse’, galopar2 ‘to ride a galloping
horse’, jinetear ‘to ride a horse in a showing off manner; trotar2 ‘to ride a trotting
horse’.
b.2. On/in a vehicle:
b.2.1. Unspecified vehicle: conducir ‘to drive’, montar(se) ‘get on/onto an
animal or into a vehicle’, pilotar ‘(ship) to steer, (car) to drive, (plane) to fly’,
navegar ‘(ship or airplane) to navigate’
b.2.2. Specific vehicle/instrument: esquiar ‘to ski’, patinar ‘to skate’.
b.2.3. Part of a vehicle: pedalear ‘to pedal’, remar ‘to row, to paddle’.
b.3. On/in an instrument: columpiar(se) ‘to (cause to) swing’, hamarcar(se)
‘to rock (someone or oneself) on a hammock’.
This wide category groups verbs denoting motion on animals, on/in vehicles and
on/in instruments. Within the group of motion on/in vehicles, we observe (a) verbs
which denote a specific vehicle or instrument; (b) verbs which imply the use of
vehicles; and (c) verbs encoding a part of a given vehicle to refer to the vehicle as a
whole. Like in English, we find some metonymic verbs (i.e., PART of a vehicle for
the WHOLE vehicle): pedalear ‘to pedal’, which refers to motion using a bike or any
204
vehicle with pedals, and remar ‘to row, to paddle’, which refers to motion on a boat,
etc.
c.
Rate (4 verbs, 3.25% of Spanish manner verbs): acelerar ‘to speed up, to
accelerate’, aligerar ‘to quicken, to hurry up’, apresurarse ‘to hurry up’, desacelerar
‘to slow down’.
The manner verbs in this group, which encode information about the rate of motion,
express notions such as an increase (acelerar, aligerar, and apresurarse) or a
decrease in speed (desacelerar).
d.
Path shape (4 verbs, 3.25% of Spanish manner verbs): culebrear ‘to zigzag’,
serpentear ‘to slither, to meander’, rodear ‘to surround with; to go round’,
zigzaguear ‘to zigzag’.
Within this group of verbs, we find two verbs, namely, culebrear (from the noun
culebra ‘snake’) and serpentear (from the noun serpiente ‘snake’) which denote that
the Figure moves along a curved or zigzagged path such as one which is inherent to
the motion of snakes. In sum, by containing the name of a given animal, these verbs
typically denote the path-shape that the animal follows in its motion.
e.
Forced Motion (3 verbs, 2.44% of Spanish manner verbs): arrojar(se),
lanzar(se) and tirar(se) meaning ‘to throw, to throw oneself’.
These verbs encode the fact that the Figure performs a high-energetic movement in
its motion. This group of verbs functions basically as agentive verbs (caused
motion), which are made self-agentive motion verbs by adjoining the reflexive
pronoun ‘se’.
f.
Dance (3 verbs, 2.44% of Spanish manner verbs): bailar ‘to dance’, bailotear
‘to dance with little attention or in a careless way’, danzar ‘to dance’.
Unlike in English, Spanish has a verb expressing that the Figure dances in a careless
way (bailotear). It should be noted here that the verbs zapatear and taconear, which
have been grouped in ‘Noisy Motion’, could have been included within this category,
as they are also defined as the tapping of shoes in some dances.
205
g.
Contact between the Figure and the Ground (3 verbs, 2.44% of Spanish
manner verbs): arrastar(se) ‘to drag something, to drag oneself, to crawl’,
deslizar(se) ‘to (cause to) slide’, resbalarse ‘to slide’.
The first two verbs can be both agentive and self-agentive verbs, whereas the last is a
self-agentive motion verb. In terms of the semantic information they additionally
express, in arrastrar(se) the Figure’s body is close to the Ground; deslizar(se)
denotes smooth contact with the Ground. Resbalarse expresses that the Figure moves
smoothly over the Ground and, according to DRAE, such motion might be
uncontrolled, as when sliding on ice or on a wet floor.
h.
Obstructed Motion (2 verbs, 1.63% of Spanish manner verbs): tropezar ‘to
trip’, trompicar ’to (cause to) trip repeteadly’.
These two verbs denote that the Figure encounters some obstacles in the course of its
motion (i.e., the Figure needs to be moving or walking somewhere). Thus, these
verbs might be said to imply translational motion. Tropezar denotes a punctual event,
whereas trompicar is a repeated event.
i.
Noisy Motion (2 verbs, 1.63% of Spanish manner verbs): zapatear ‘to tap
shoes (when walking or dancing)’, taconear ‘to tap shoes with heels (when walking
or dancing)’.
These two manner-of-motion verbs are both defined as ways of walking (thus,
translational motion) and as ways of dancing (thus, self-contained motion) (DUE,
DRAE). This is the reason why they have not been included in either ‘Walk’ (where
chancletear ‘to walk noisily while using flip-flops’ is grouped) or ‘Dance’.
j.
Smooth Motion (1 verb, 0.81% of Spanish manner verbs): flotar ‘to float or
to move smoothly (on liquid, on air)’.
Smooth Motion is a manner category connected to translational motion. However,
this verb does not seem to imply that the Figure is moving along a path, but rather
that it keeps its overall location. Thus, this verb denotes self-contained motion.
k.
Leisurely Motion: viajar ‘to travel’
206
As with English travel, this motion verb does not seem to imply the use of a vehicle,
just the fact of the Figure making a journey, which implies leisurely motion.
l.
State of the Figure: pavonearse ‘to strut about’.
This verb is not defined in relation to a specific motor pattern, but just as the Figure
having a proud attitude.
m.
Motion in file: desfilar ‘to parade, to walk in file’.
n.
Motion in sports: regatear ‘to dribble’.
o.
Playful Motion: retozar ‘to frolic’.
p.
Others: zaparrastrar ‘to move, to walk dragging one’s clothing’.
As the dictionaries are not specific about whether the Figure is walking or not, this
verb is not included within the category Walk (Motor pattern).
The third group of research questions posited at the beginning of the chapter and also
at the beginning of Section 5.5. asked (a) whether the English and the Spanish
manner-of-motion verb lexicons lexicalise similar manner information; (b) which
manner categories are typically or more frequently lexicalised in each language, and
(c) whether English exhibits a higher degree of manner granularity in all subdomains
of motion (e.g., human and animal locomotion, motion of objects or inanimates,
motion in/on vehicles, motion while dancing, posture, etc), and, if this is not the case,
in which subdomain(s) Spanish presents a richer variety of manner verbs.
We can begin to answer these questions by looking at Tables 5.11 and 5.12,
which summarise the distribution of English and Spanish manner verbs in our corpus
in terms of (a) the types of motion they pertain to (i.e., self-contained and
translational Motion), and (b) the fine-grained manner categories that these verb
encode. Additionally, the number of verbs and their percentage relative to the whole
207
manner lexicon of which they form a part are included. Table 5.12 is presented on
the next page.
POSTURE
Upwards
Downwwards
Unspecified
Bend, Twist, Curve
Roll - Unroll
To one side
SHAKE, SWING,VIBRATE
BOUNCE
UPSIDE DOWN
ITERATIVE MOTION
UNSTEADY MOTION
TOTAL
TOTAL MANNER VERBS
#
17
6
2
4
2
1
6
ENGLISH
%
6.16%
2.17%
0.72%
1.45%
0.72%
0.36%
2.17%
2
18
14
1
4
1
8
63
276
0.72%
6.52%
5.07%
0.36%
1.45%
0.36%
2.90%
22.83%
100.00%
#
28
11
5
6
5
3
5
3
1
11
5
2
SPANISH
%
22.76%
8.94%
4.07%
4.88%
4.07%
2.44%
4.07%
2.44%
0.81%
8.94%
4.07%
1.63%
2
2
50
123
1.63%
1.63%
40.65%
100.00%
Table 5.11. Distribution of English and Spanish manner verbs (Self-contained Motion)
208
PATH SHAPE
MOTOR PATTERN
Walk
Run
Jump
RATE
Fast
Slow
Increase
Decrease
FORCED MOTION
Energy-high
Energy-low
FURTIVE MOTION
OBSTRUCTED MOTION
SMOOTH MOTION
LEISURELY MOTION
NO AIM IN MOTION
STATE OF FIGURE
DANCE
VEHICLE/INSTRUMENT
Smooth motion
Uncontrolled motion
Slight contact
USE OF ONE'S HANDS/LEGS
MOTION IN FILE
MOTION IN SPORTS
PLAYFUL MOTION
UNCONTROLLED MOTION
AWKWARD MOTION
NOISY MOTION
OTHERS
Trailing clothes
Gradual stages
TOTAL
TOTAL MANNER VERBS
#
3
65
47
7
11
35
29
2
3
1
2
1
1
6
2
1
2
ENGLISH
%
1.09%
23.55%
17.03%
2.54%
3.99%
12.68%
10.51%
0.72%
1.09%
0.36%
0.72%
0.36%
0.36%
2.17%
0.72%
0.36%
0.72%
#
4
31
24
4
3
4
SPANISH
%
3.25%
25.20%
19.51%
3.25%
2.44%
3.25%
3
1
3
3
2.44%
0.81%
2.44%
2.44%
2
1
1
1.63%
0.81%
0.81%
3
19
52
11
4
4
1
2
1.09%
6.88%
18.84%
3.99%
1.45%
1.45%
0.36%
0.72%
1
3
14
3
1
2
0.81%
2.44%
11.38%
2.44%
0.81%
1.63%
1
1
6
0.36%
0.36%
2.17%
1
1
1
0.81%
0.81%
0.81%
1
3
1
0.36%
1.09%
0.36%
2
1
1.63%
0.81%
1
0.81%
2
213
276
0.72%
77.17%
100.00%
73
123
59.35%
100.00%
Table 5.12. Distribution of English and Spanish manner verbs (Translational Motion)
209
As shown above, both languages overall seem to be able to lexicalise a wide
range of semantic information pertaining to the manners by which a Figure moves
either while keeping its overall location or while going from its original location to
another one.
Two chi-square tests were performed to find out whether the distribution of
English and Spanish manner verbs in terms of self-contained motion categories, on
the one hand, and in terms of translational motion categories, on the other, were
significantly different. Our results suggest that English and Spanish differ in how
they distribute their manner verbs across different categories within self-contained
motion (Chi-square (6) = 15.62, p < 0.05) as well as within translational motion
(Chi-square (16) = 93.79, p < 0.05).
Overall, it can be observed that English manner verbs outnumber Spanish
ones (276 vs. 123 verbs). In English, 22.83% of manner verbs relate to self-contained
motion, whereas 77.17% relate to translational motion. In Spanish, in contrast, the
two motion categories are more balanced; 40.65% of the manner verbs refer to selfcontained motion and 59.35%, to translational motion.
In terms of self-contained motion, ‘Posture’ (Spanish, 22.73%; English,
6.16%) and ‘Shake, Swing and Vibrate’ (Spanish, 8.94%; English 6.52%) are the
most frequently lexicalised categories for both languages. ‘Posture’, nonetheless,
seems to be more often exploited in the Spanish verb lexicon. As has already been
shown, Spanish has a great number of verbs expressing the Figure’s change of
posture or orientation; these verbs generally come from agentive verbs which are
made self-agentive (animates) and non-agentive (inanimates) by adding the reflexive
pronoun ‘se’ to the verb (e.g., sentar ‘to sit someone’ – sentar(se) ‘to sit oneself’;
torcer ‘to bend something’ – torcer(se) ‘to bend oneself’, the latter of which might
be used for both animates and inanimates (e.g., a tree can bend, etc)). In contrast,
English posture verbs typically denote ‘to be in a given position’ and they need a
satellite to denote ‘to get into a given position’ (cf. Talmy, 2000b: 80). Apart from
differences in the number of posture verbs in the two languages, some semantic
differences can also be noted. The English verbs in our corpus do not seem to
lexicalise rolling or unrolling postural notions, which are conveyed by Spanish verbs
such as enroscar(se) ‘to coil oneself’ and desenroscar(se) ‘to uncoil oneself’.
210
Another interesting crosslinguistic difference is found in the verbs expressing
‘Revolve, Rotate and Spin’. In English, this group of verbs can also function as
agentive verbs (caused motion)—except for piroutte; in contrast, Spanish verbs
expressing this manner of motion do not seem to be used as agentive verbs (apart
from girar2 ‘to (cause to) rotate, spin’). Moreover, no ‘Upside Down’ motion verbs
(such as English capsize, overturn and flip) are found in our corpus of Spanish verbs.
To finish our discussion of self-contained motion, we would like to remark that some
verbs within these categories might also be found in translational motion. More often
than not, dictionary definitions in both languages include senses pertaining to both
types of motion; for example, slouch is defined by most dictionaries as to walk
[translational motion], sit or stand with a drooping posture [self-contained motion]
(CALD, TFD, MW). English roll and Spanish rodar ‘to roll’ are defined as to move
around an axis (i.e., self-contained motion) and as to move along a surface by turning
over (i.e., translational motion) (CALD, TFD, MW, OED; DUE, DRAE). The same
behaviour is also found with verbs encoding ‘Unsteady Motion’ (e.g., dodder,
stagger, teeter, totter). These observations might suggest that the borderline between
the two types of motion is thin and might be broken at some points, especially in the
case of English, which seems to be able to productively use any manner verb in a
translational motion frame (cf., Goldberg, 1995; Narasimham, 2003; Narasimham et
al, 2006).
In terms of translational motion, 77.17% of English manner verbs and
59.35% of Spanish manner verbs generally imply translational motion. Before we
proceed, the reader should note that verbs of flying and verbs of swimming, which
also encode ‘Motor pattern’, have been analysed as denoting Motion plus two
additional components: Manner (‘Motor pattern’) and Ground (air and water
respectively). Therefore, they have not been included in this section on manner verbs
per se, but rather in Section 5.3.1., where we dealt with verbs that conflate Motion,
Ground and Manner.
As shown in Table 5.12, for some manner categories, namely, ‘No aim in
Motion’, ‘Characteristic use of lower body’ (information about the length of steps,
the shape of the legs, etc), ‘Uncontrolled Motion’, and ‘Awkward Motion’, no
motion verb is found in either of these two languages. However, this does not mean
211
that English and Spanish do not have verbs lexicalising these notions, but rather that
manner verbs encoding any of these manner details together with additional manner
information have been grouped according to the additional information. As pointed
out at the beginning of Section 5.5, manner verbs typically encode more than one
manner detail. This has posed some problems when grouping manner verbs into the
proposed manner categories since it is not clear by looking at dictionary definitions
whether some manner categories (e.g., ‘Motor pattern’, ‘Contact between Figure and
Ground’) are more important than others (e.g., ‘Rate’, ‘Furtive Motion’, ‘Smooth
Motion’) for defining a motion verb, or whether all manner categories are on equal
footing. Therefore, future empirical research would be needed (a) to test the validity
of our analysis, that is, whether manner verbs truly encode the semantic information
we have extracted from dictionaries; and (b) to shed some light on the issues of
whether some types of manner information might be more important than others
when categorising a motion verb (i.e., some manner details might be seen as defining
features for certain verbs, but not for others), or whether all manner categories are on
equal footing in the semantics of manner-of-motion verbs.
Regarding the manner categories which are most frequently lexicalised in
each language, ‘Motor Pattern’ (23.55%), ‘Vehicle/Instrument’ (18.84%), ‘Rate’
(12.68%), and ‘Dance’ (6.88%) are the most frequent categories for English; on the
other hand, ‘Motor Pattern’ (25.20%) and ‘Vehicle/Instrument’ (11.38%) are the
most frequent categories for Spanish. Though English manner verbs generally
outnumber Spanish manner verbs across manner categories implying translational
motion, it can be noted that both languages devote a great part of their verb lexicon
to reference to distinct motor patterns (i.e., basic locomotive abilities by humans and
animals) and to motion using vehicles.
Within ‘Motor pattern’, we observed that walking verbs surpass running and
jumping verbs both in English (47 verbs for ‘Walk’, 7 for ‘Run’ and 11 for ‘Jump’)
and Spanish (24 for ‘Walk’, 4 for ‘Run’ and 3 for ‘Jump’). This suggests that both
languages organise this portion of their verb lexicon in much the same way despite
quantitative differences; English and Spanish seem to be more concerned with
lexicalising fine-grained information about the way the Figure walks than about how
it runs or jumps. Walking is a more basic daily activity; people might run or jump
212
sometimes during the day, but most of the time they walk from one place to another.
Thus, it might be hypothesised that most of the world’s languages would be more
likely to possess a more extensive manner verb lexicon for walking activities than for
running or jumping activities.
In terms of the semantic information which is typically expressed in walking
verbs, Table 5.13 summarises the sorts of fine-grained manner information conveyed
by English and Spanish walking verbs.
WALKING VERBS
ENGLISH
SPANISH
#
%
#
%
State of the Figure
19
40.43%
2
8.33%
No aim in motion
8
17.02%
7
29.17%
Char. use of lower body
7
14.89%
3
12.50%
Forced Motion
4
8.51%
2
8.33%
Unsteady Motion
2
4.26%
Awkward Motion
1
2.13%
Furtive Motion
1
2.13%
Swinging Motion
1
2.13%
1
4.17%
Iterative Motion
1
4.17%
Noisy Motion
1
4.17%
Contact between F & G
1
4.17%
Use of one's hands/legs
1
4.17%
Rate
2
8.33%
UNCLEAR
3
6.38%
1
4.17%
HYPERONYM(S)
1
2.13%
2
8.33%
47
100.00%
24
100.00%
TOTAL
Table 5.13. Fine-grained manner categories for Walking verbs in English and Spanish
It should be noted that the semantic nature of some walking verbs in both languages
remains unclear. By relying on dictionary definitions alone, it is impossible to fit
these unclear cases into any of the fine-grained categories shown above.
On the whole, both languages seem to lexicalise in their walking verbs
information (a) about the physical or psychological state of the Figure (though
English exploits this semantic information much more often), (b) about the way the
213
Figure moves its legs (whether the Figure takes long, orshort steps, etc), and (c)
whether the Figure moves about aimlessly, unsteadily, awkwardly, in an effortful
way, etc. In addtion, both languages have a verb expressing the swinging of the
Figure while walking (waddle, anadear ‘to duckwalk’). Apart from these similarities
between English and Spanish, our data reveals some crosslinguistic differences. A
chi-square test was carried out to find out whether the two languages differed in how
they distribute their walking verbs in terms of the 13 fine-grained manner categories
displayed in the table (unclear cases and hyperonyms were not counted). Our results
showed that English and Spanish do differ significantly in their distributions (Chisquare (12) = 24, p < 0.05). On the one hand, in Spanish, there are some verbs
expressing some sort of semantic information which does not seem to be lexicalised
in the English walking verbs in our corpus: first, within ‘Rate’, haldear ‘to walk
quickly moving one’s skirt/dress’ and trotar1, defined by dictionaries as a fast walk
for both humans and animals; second, within ‘Noisy Motion’, the verb chancletear
‘to walk noisily using flip-flops’; third, within ‘Use of one’s hands/legs’, gatear1 ‘to
crawl 30 , to walk using one’s hands and/or legs’); fourth, within ‘Contact between the
Figure and the Ground’, reptar ‘to crawl like a reptile’, that is, to walk dragging
one’s body; and finally, within ‘Iterative motion’, the verb zancajear ‘to walk
repeatedly from one place to another’. On the other hand, in English walking verbs,
there are some verbs expressing kinds of ‘Unsteady Motion’, ‘Awkward Motion’ and
‘Furtive Motion, which do not appear to be lexicalised in Spanish walking verbs:
first, within ‘Unsteady Motion’, paddle3 and toddle; second, within the ‘Awkward
Motion’ category, shamble encodes the awkward and slow walking of the Figure,
and third, within ‘Furtive Motion’, prowl denotes that the Figure walks around a
place stealthily, so as not to be noticed. To conclude our discussion of walking verbs,
we should stress that although both languages can lexicalise similar fine-grained
semantic information, English exploits some fine-grained manner categories much
more as shown by the larger number of verbs lexicalising mental states of the Figure
and details about the way the Figure moves its legs while walking.
30
Unlike English crawl, which is defined as the Figure moving close to the ground, the Spanish verb
gatear is defined as a way of walking (DUE, DRAE).
214
Regarding ‘Run’ and ‘Jump verbs’, both languages have fewer verbs for
these two motor patterns than for ‘Walk’. In our Spanish corpus, only four ‘Run’
verbs (3.25%) and three ‘Jump’ verbs (2.44% of Spanish manner verbs) are
identified. On the other hand, in the case of English, ‘Jump’ verbs (11 verbs, 3.99%
of English manner verbs) outnumber ‘Run’ verbs (7 verbs, 2.54% of English manner
verbs). As pointed out earlier, the lack of agreement among English dictionary
definitions with respect to whether some verbs encoding ‘Rate-fast’ are or are not
running verbs (e.g., bolt, canter, dash, dart, hurry, rush, scurry, scuttle, spring,
zoom, etc), has led us to include all these possible candidates for ‘Run verbs’ in the
category ‘Rate-fast’. The empirical research reported in Chapter 6 (Section 6.4) will
address whether these verbs might be categorised as running verbs.
In terms of the semantic information ‘Run’ and ‘Jump’ verbs lexicalise in
English, it has been observed that running verbs include information mostly about (a)
‘Characteristic use of the lower body’: length of steps (long steps in lope, and small
steps in scamper) and (b) ‘Rate’ (fast as in gallop and sprint, or slow as in trot and
jog). Jumping verbs seem to encode information about (a) the length or height of
jumps (bound, leap), (b) the use of one or more legs (hop), (c) the use of one’s hands
or of a pole (vault). In contrast, Spanish ‘Run’ verbs express ‘Playful Motion’
(corretear ‘to run about in a playful way’) and the Figure’s fast rate for a brief period
of time (esprintar ‘to sprint’). Finally, with respect to Spanish ‘Jump’ verbs, two
verbs besides the hyperonym saltar have been found in our corpus: cabriolar ‘to
capriole’, which seems to be used only for horses, and brincar which denotes the
same motion as saltar ‘to jump, to push oneself into the air’ (DUE, DRAE), but
seems to be used in more informal contexts.
Before we move on to deal with other manner categories which are frequently
lexicalised in manner verbs in English and Spanish, we would like to raise the issue
of the semantic nature of ‘Jump’ (Spanish ‘Saltar’). On the whole, this motor pattern
category seems to be quite connected with self-contained motion in the sense that
when the Figure jumps, hops or pronks, it does not necessarily change its overall
location. However, if jumping verbs are followed by prepositional phrases encoding
direction, they can also express translational motion. Unlike ‘Walk’ and ‘Run’,
which seem to need or imply the Figure’s change of location (unless the Figure is
215
walking or running on a treadmill), it might be argued that ‘Jump’ in English and in
Spanish is characterised or defined by the Figure’s rising from the ground using its
legs, which might take place at a single location or from a location to another. We
will address this issue in Chapter 6 (Section 6.2).
If we consider the category ‘Vehicle/Instrument’, our analysis has shown that
both English and Spanish posses motion verbs which encode motion on animals,
in/on vehicles and in/on instruments. Furthermore, it has been pointed out that,
within the group of motion on/in vehicles, both languages have (a) verbs which
denote a specific vehicle or instrument (e.g., bus, taxi, ship, jeep, esquiar ‘to ski’,
patinar ‘to skate’), (b) verbs which imply the use of some vehicles (e.g., drive,
motor, journey, conducir ‘to drive’) and (c) verbs which encode a part of a vehicle to
refer to the vehicle as a whole (e.g., oar, row, wheel, pedalear ‘to pedal’, remar ‘to
row’). The latter group of verbs are metonymic; they refer to a part of a vehicle to
activate the whole vehicle (cf. Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, 1999; Cifuentes-Honrubia,
1999). On the other hand, some crosslinguistic differences may be pointed out in this
subdomain; English seems to be highly flexible in the use of almost any vehicle
name 31 as a motion verb. Such flexibility seems to explain the richer manner verb
lexicon in this domain as compared to Spanish; it may account as well for the
impressive number of dance names which can be used as motion verbs.
Like the vast majority of vehicle verbs in English, ‘Dance’ verbs are also
denominal verbs. It seems that any dance name is licensed as a motion verb in
English. In contrast, Spanish just possesses a few manner verbs pertaining to
dancing: the hyperonym bailar ‘to dance’, danzar ‘to dance’ (which seems to be
used in formal contexts), and bailotear ‘to dance in a careless way’. Curiously
enough, English does not seem to lexicalise this notion (i.e., dance in a careless way)
in a motion verb despite its fine-grained distinctions in this domain.
So far, we have been discussing manner categories which are frequently
lexicalised either in both languages or in English. To conclude this section, two
manner categories which are not frequently encoded in these languages are dealt with
as they reveal further crosslinguistic differences in the semantics of English and
Spanish manner verbs: ‘Contact between the Figure and the Ground’ and ‘Noisy
31
It seems that nouns such as car, baby-carriage and stroller cannot be used as motion verbs.
216
activity’. In English, ‘Contact’ verbs (11 verbs, 3.99% of English manner verbs)
expresses that (a) the Figure’s body is close to the Ground (crawl, creep2, grovel and
sweep); (b) the Figure moves smoothly over/along the Ground (glide, slide, slip,
slither); (c) the Figure loses control over its motion over/along the Ground (skid);
and (d) the Figure is just in slight contact with the Ground (skim, skitter). Moreover,
some of these verbs encode further semantic information; for example, slither also
encodes that the shape of the path that the Figure follows is similar to those of
reptiles (a twisted, curved shape of path); skim and skitter denote fast speed as well;
and grovel denotes that the Figure has a specific state of mind (humiliated). On the
other hand, Spanish have 3 verbs encoding ‘Contact’ (2.44% of Spanish manner
verbs): arrastar(se) ‘to drag something, to drag oneself, to crawl’ which denotes that
the Figure’s body is close to the Ground; deslizar(se) ‘to (cause to) slide’ which
encodes smooth contact with the Ground; and resbalarse ‘to slide’, which encodes
smooth motion over the Ground, which can also be uncontrolled. In sum, Spanish
verbs encode some of the fine-grained manner details expressed by English ‘Contact’
verbs, but not all. For example, no verb that expresses slight contact with the ground
or mental state of the Figure is found in our corpus. Regarding ‘Noisy Motion’,
Spanish has 2 verbs (1.63% of Spanish manner verbs): zapatear ‘to tap shoes (when
walking or dancing)’ and taconear ‘to tap shoes with heels (when walking or
dancing)’. These two verbs together with the walking verb chancletear ‘to walk
noisily using flip-flops’, encode cultural manners of motion, which do not seem to be
lexicalised into a single verb in English.
In general, our analysis of the English and the Spanish manner verb lexicons
has shed light on both crosslinguistic similarities and differences between the two
languages. Although the English manner verb lexicon is much larger than the
Spanish one, and thus, it exploits some manner categories much more than Spanish
does, we have found that both languages are able to lexicalise similar types of
manner information. Our analysis has also shown that the two languages distribute
their manner lexicons in different ways. In terms of the two types of motion, we have
pointed out that manner verbs implying translational motion outnumber those
denoting self-contained motion, but this difference was less pronounced for Spanish.
This may be due, in part, to the high proportion of posture verbs in Spanish (22.76%
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of the Spanish manner verb lexicon). On the other hand, in terms of translational
motion, both languages devote the greatest part of their verb lexicon to reference to
distinct motor patterns (i.e., basic locomotive abilities by humans and animals), but
again they subdivide their lexicons differently both within the ‘Motor Pattern’
category and between the other manner categories. In the case of English,
‘Vehicle/Instrument’, ‘Rate’, and ‘Dance’ are the most frequent manner categories
apart from ‘Motor Pattern’, whereas for Spanish, apart from ‘Motor pattern’,
‘Vehicle/Instrument’ is, to a certain extent, frequent as well but ‘Rate’ and ‘Dance’
are not. On the whole, we can conclude that the English verb lexicon seems to have
greater manner granularity than the Spanish verb lexicon particularly in the
subdomains of (a) human and animal locomotion (walking, running and jumping
verbs), (b) motion using a vehicle, and (c) motion while dancing.
5.6. Conclusions
The present chapter has addressed three main research questions relative to the
general semantic distribution of the English and Spanish motion verb lexicons,
relative to their path verbs, and relative to their manner verbs.
The first and most general question asked about which semantic notions are
generally conflated in the motion verbs in our corpus. Our findings suggest that the
conflation of Motion plus one additional semantic component (either Manner or
Path) is the most characteristic of both motion verb lexicons. In contrast, verbs
expressing just Motion, and verbs conflating either two or three semantic elements
along with Motion might be said to be less representative. In general, English and
Spanish motion verbs seem to be to encode a wide range of semantic information
pertaining both to the main Motion event and to the Co-event.
However, the
majority of the lexicalisation patterns attested in our corpus of motion verbs seem to
be minor patterns in these languages, that is to say, they are not typical for either
English or Spanish. These include, Motion + Figure, Motion + Ground, Motion +
Cause, and more complex conflations of Figure, Ground and Co-events relations.
Regarding crosslinguistic differences, it has been noted that some minor
lexicalisation patterns are instantiated in one language but not in the other; however,
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a larger sample of motion verbs might yield no differences across the two languages
in this regard. In addition, Spanish tends to express the Ground of motion in their
verbs, either conflated with Motion alone or with additional semantic elements, much
more often than English does (i.e., 31 Spanish verbs, 12.06% of the Spanish corpus,
versus 17 English verbs, 4.55% of the English corpus). On the whole, these findings
contradict Talmy’s speculations on the lack of Ground conflations in motion verb
lexicons. It is true that ground-conflating verbs do not form the core system for
expressing Motion, but it seems to be a minor pattern in both Spanish and English.
The second set of research questions enquired about the size and the semantic
nature of the English and the Spanish path verb lexicons. The first question asked
whether the English and the Spanish path verb lexicons were comparable in size. Our
findings indicate that they are not; Spanish path verbs outnumber English path verbs.
In the Spanish corpus, 63 path verbs were found, whereas in the English corpus, 44
path verbs were identified. In light of our data, the larger number of path verbs in
Spanish might be attributed to path verbs which are used for specific contexts (e.g.,
informal contexts such as pirarse and largarse ‘to go away’), for certain Figures
(e.g., zarpar ‘of a ship, to depart’, arrivar ‘of a ship to arrive’), for certain Grounds
(e.g., encumbrar ‘to reach the top of a mountain’) and path verbs which encode force
dynamics (e.g., encerrar(se) ‘to put something or oneself into an enclosed place’, in
which the Ground restrains the Figure from going out). In addition, we may attribute
the greater number of path verbs in Spanish to a group of path verbs whose
etymological origin is different from English path verbs. We refer in particular to an
interesting group of Spanish path verbs that originated from adverbs and nouns (e.g.,
acercar(se) from cerca ‘near, close’; adentrar(se) from dentro ‘inside’;
adelantar(se) from delante ‘in front of’; alejar(se) from lejos ‘far’; aproximar(se)
from próximo ‘close’; distanciar(se) from distancia ‘distance’; encumbrar from en +
cumbre ‘peak, top of a mountain’). The second research question asked whether the
two path lexicons were comparable in their semantic nature. After a close
examination of the types of path which are encoded by English and Spanish path
verbs, we have concluded that although the two path lexicons differ in size, they are
able to encode the same sorts of path information; in particular, both languages have
path verbs expressing the 13 types of path used in our analysis and the distributions
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of verbs across these path types do not differ significantly. Across the two languages,
the most frequent types of path are ‘Away from G’, ‘Up/Onto G – Upwards’,
‘To/towards G’ and ‘Down from/to G – Downwards’. These four types of path
constitute basic spatial distinctions which might be expected to be the most frequent
path types for other satellite- and verb-framed languages. Further research would be
needed to test whether languages have a preference for lexicalising these types of
paths over others. On the whole, our research on the English and the Spanish path
verb lexicons provides support for Özçalişkan’s (2004) claim that the path verb
lexicons of both satellite- and verb-framed languages form a closed lexical category,
but it does not support her claim on comparable size for path lexicons in the two
types of language. Further crosslinguistic research should address her claims to test
whether they apply beyond Turkish (the language she works on), English and
Spanish.
The third set of questions dove into manner-of-motion verbs and were aimed
at determining (a) whether English and Spanish manner verbs are capable of
expressing similar manner information, (b) what sorts of manner details are most
frequently lexicalised in English and in Spanish, and (c) whether the English manner
verb lexicon exhibits a greater degree of manner granularity in all subdomains of
motion, and if not, in which subdomain(s) Spanish exhibits a greater variety of
manner verbs. Overall, both languages seem to be able to lexicalise a wide range of
semantic information pertaining to the ways in which the Figure moves while
keeping its overall location (i.e, self-contained motion) or when going from its
original location to another one (i.e., translational motion). When analysing mannerof-motion verbs, we made a categorical distinction between these two types of
motion. Thus, all manner-of-motion verbs were included in one of these two
categories. Our findings suggest that the boundary between self-contained and
translational motion is fuzzy. To put it differently, some motion verbs are defined by
dictionaries as denoting both types of motion; this was especially the case for
English, which seems capable of using any manner verb in a translational motion
frame.
In English, the greater proportion of the manner verbs in our corpus refers to
translational motion, whereas in Spanish, the proportions of verbs expressing self-
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contained motion and translational motion are more balanced. In terms of selfcontained motion, ‘Posture’ and ‘Shake, Swing and Vibrate’ are the most frequently
lexicalised categories in both English and Spanish manner verbs. ‘Posture’, however,
seems to be much more often exploited in the Spanish manner verb lexicon, whereas
‘Revolve, Rotate, Spin’, ‘Upside down motion’ and ‘Unsteady Motion’ are more
often expressed by English manner verbs. In terms of translational motion, ‘Motor
Pattern’, ‘Vehicle/Instrument’, ‘Rate’ and ‘Dance’ are the most frequent manner
categories for English; while ‘Motor Pattern’ and ‘Vehicle/Instrument’ are the two
most frequent categories for Spanish. Although English manner verbs generally
outnumber Spanish manner verbs across manner categories implying translational
motion, we have found that both languages devote a great part of their manner verb
lexicon to basic locomotive abilities by humans and animals (i.e., motor patterns) and
to motion using vehicles. In terms of motor patterns, we have found that walking
verbs surpass running and jumping verbs both in English and in Spanish. This
finding suggests that the two languages organise their verb lexicon along the same
lines despite differences in the number of manner verbs; although English walking,
running and jumping verbs outnumber those of Spanish, both languages seem to be
more concerned with lexicalising fine-grained information about the way the Figure
walks than about the way it runs or jumps. Additionally, we have noted that English
and Spanish walking verbs encode similar manner information, but that English is
much more likely to exploit some fine-grained manner categories; in particular,
manner information about the mental and physical state of the Figure and details
about the way the Figure moves its legs while walking. Surprisingly, we came across
3 Spanish manner verbs which are deeply rooted in the Spanish culture: chancletear
‘to walk noisily using flip-flops’, taconear ‘to tap heels while walking or dancing’
and zapatear ‘to tap shoes while walking or dancing’. These semantic notions (i.e.,
‘Noisy motion’ + ‘mp-walk’/’Dance’) do not seem to be lexicalised in any English
walk or dance verb. As Papafragou et al. (2002: 193) noted, ‘languages differ in their
lexicons in ways that seem intimately related to cultural preoccupations’. In terms of
motion using a vehicle, our analysis has shown that both English and Spanish
possess motion verbs which encode motion on animals, in/on vehicles and in/on
instruments. Furthermore, we pointed out that, within the group of motion on/in
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vehicles, both languages have (a) verbs which denote a specific vehicle or instrument
(e.g., bus, taxi, ship, jeep, esquiar ‘to ski’, patinar ‘to skate’), (b) verbs which imply
the use of particular vehicles (e.g., drive, motor, journey, conducir ‘to drive’) and (c)
verbs which encode a part of a vehicle to refer to the vehicle as a whole (e.g., oar,
row, wheel, pedalear ‘to pedal’, remar ‘to row’). Again, unlike Spanish, English
seems to be highly flexible in the use of almost any vehicle name as a motion verb;
this flexibility extends to the use of dance nouns as motion verbs as well. Therefore,
we can conclude that the English motion verb lexicon has a greater variety of manner
verbs than the Spanish motion verb lexicon in at least three subdomains of motion:
human and animal locomotion, motion using a vehicle, and motion while dancing.
The semantic analysis of the English and the Spanish motion verb lexicons
provides a solid linguistic and typological foundation for an exploration of the
semantics of motion verbs from an experimental point of view. The analysis has
raised a major question concerning the semantic nature of motion verbs: Do motion
verbs mean what dictionaries say they do? This, in turn, raises specific questions in
terms of the psycholinguistic reality of the results of our analysis. By way of
illustration, in the case of verbs which have been analysed as encoding Motion +
Path + Manner (e.g., climb, dive, plummet, plunge, slink, abalanzarse ‘to dash to’,
trepar ‘to climb’), it would be interesting to test whether, according to native
speakers, these verbs encode both Path and Manner information, as it would be
expected from our analysis, or whether these verbs simply encode Manner of motion
which typically occurs with specific paths of motion and thus, the trajectory of
motion is merely an interpretation arising from context. Naming and typicality
judgment tasks using video clips with changed paths and changed manners might
help to unveil the semantic nature of this group of verbs. For example, would an
event be labelled by dive or judged as typical of diving if (a) the Figure does not
move in a rapid, high energetic way and (b) if the Figure does not follow a
downwards path? In the case of Path verbs, it was noted that some English verbs,
namely hound, pursue and shadow, seem to encode manner information besides the
‘After G’ type of path. This might also be tested empirically. However, to address all
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these questions falls outside the limits of this dissertation and will be left for future
research.
In conclusion, our methodology has enabled us to compare and contrast
English and Spanish motion verbs and to shed some light on the ways these two
languages, often taken as prototypical examples of Talmy’s typology for Motion,
organise their motion verb lexicons. Apart from many similarities in the general
distribution of motion verbs, in their path verbs, and in their manner verbs,
crosslinguistic differences have also been pointed out. We conclude with what
Berman & Slobin (1994: 118) pointed out for their own research, ‘[a]s a general
caveat, it should be remembered that typological characterizations often reflect
tendencies rather than absolute differences between languages’.
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CHAPTER 6
AN EMPIRICAL LOOK AT HUMAN LOCOMOTION VERBS
6.1. Introduction
6.2. The meaning of move, walk, run and jump
6.2.1. Introduction
6.2.2. Method
6.2.3. Results
6.3. Walking, running and jumping Verbs
6.3.1. Introduction
6.3.2. Method
6.3.3. Results
6.4. Categorisation of human locomotion verbs
6.4.1. Introduction
6.4.2. Method
6.4.3. Results
6.5. Conclusions
CHAPTER 6. AN EMPIRICAL LOOK AT HUMAN LOCOMOTION VERBS
6.1. Introduction
Motion verb lexicons exhibit a highly complex semantic nature. The semantic
analysis of the English and the Spanish motion verb lexicons carried out in the
previous chapter has provided a solid linguistic and typological foundation to set off
to explore the semantics of motion verbs from an experimental point of view. A
semantic analysis based on dictionaries or on the linguist’s introspections does not
permit a researcher to talk about the speaker’s mental representations of the
meanings of motion verbs. Such fine-grained semantic analysis should be regarded
as a mere instrument for representing the products of linguistic analysis and not as a
mirror of the speaker’s mind (cf. Sandra & Rice, 1995). If these analyses are to be
taken as indicative of the meanings of the words, they must be validated
experimentally. It is necessary to resort to native speakers and carefully designed
empirical work in order to begin to know what actually goes on in their minds.
In the present chapter we are concerned with human locomotion verbs 1 . The
domain of human locomotion is universally experienced and may be structured
around three motor patterns pertaining to motion on land: English ‘Walk’-Spanish
‘Andar’, Eng. ‘Run’- Sp. ‘Correr’, and Eng. ‘Jump’- Sp. ‘Saltar’. Walking seem to
be the most important and basic human motor pattern; it is the default way of moving
for humans, whereas running and jumping seem to be more peripheral as people do
not typically run or jump in order to go somewhere. This chapter reports three
experimental studies on human locomotion whose main goals are (a) to explore the
defining features for each human motor pattern (i.e., ‘Walk’, ‘Run’ and ‘Jump’ in
addition to the general category ‘Move’), (b) to provide empirical evidence for the
claim that English and Spanish organise their human locomotion verb lexicons in
similar ways (i.e., larger number of walking verbs over running or jumping verbs),
and (c) to determine the specific motor pattern (‘Walk’, ‘Run’ and ‘Jump’) which is
denoted or implied by a list of verbs from our corpus.
In the first study (the Definition and Feature Listing task) we asked English
and Spanish native speaker to define the verbs move, walk, run and jump, and to list
1
The reader should note that many manner-of-motion verbs, i.e., walk, run, jump and some of their
hyperonyms, pertain to both human and animal locomotion.
225
their defining features (i.e., the sorts of manner information which make a given
action be labelled by these verbs). This study aims at eliciting what speakers think
about the meaning of these verbs. In the second study (the Free Verb Listing task),
we asked English and Spanish native speakers to list verbs within one minute time
limit in order to (a) test experimentally the claim that both languages organise their
lexicons along the same lines, and (b) find out prototypical verbs for the general
category ‘Move’ as well as for the three motor pattern categories ‘Walk’, ‘Run’ and
‘Jump’. Finally, the third study (the Rating task) addresses whether a list of English
and Spanish human locomotion verbs are or are not good examples of the three
motor patterns; participants were asked to rate on separate scales whether verb X was
as a way/kind of walking, or running, and of jumping.
6.2. The meaning of move, walk, run and jump
6.2.1. Introduction
As stated earlier, it is necessary to resort to language users if we want to know about
the mental representations of motion verbs. In this section, we report the results
from an experimental study in which we asked English and Spanish native speakers
to define four motion verbs (move-moverse, walk-andar, run-correr and jump-saltar)
and to list their defining features. By doing so, we begin to elicit what is going on in
the language users’ minds; additionally, we tested whether the fine-grained semantic
distinctions employed in Chapter 5 are or not relevant for speakers by looking at
their explicit mention across definitions.
Our predictions are drawn from the semantic analysis carried out in the
previous chapter: first, move-moverse is expected to be defined as both translational
and self-contained motion; the Figure can move while keeping its overall location or
changing it. Second, walk-andar is expected to be described as the most basic motor
pattern, with special attention to the use of the Figure’s legs and to the Figure as
means of locomotion in order to change location (i.e., translational motion); third,
run-correr is expected to be defined as a translational motion verb characterised by a
fast way of moving by using one’s legs; and finally, jump-saltar is expected to be
226
described as both self-contained and translational motion, characterised by the
energetic Figure’s pushing off the ground.
6.2.2. Method
Subjects
A total of 51 English speakers (12 for move, 13 for walk, 14 for run and 12 for jump)
and 60 Spanish speakers (16 for moverse ‘to move’, 16 for andar ‘to walk’, 14 for
correr ‘to run’ and 14 for saltar ‘to jump’) took part in the study. English speakers
were undergraduate students at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (US);
Spanish speakers were undergraduate students at the University of Murcia (Spain).
All participants volunteered to participate.
Procedure
We asked our participants ‘What is to move / walk / run / jump? That is, which are
the features that define the action of moving / walking /running / jumping?’ for
English, and ‘¿Qué es moverse/ andar/ correr / saltar? Es decir, ¿cuáles son las
características que definen la acción de moverse/ andar /correr/ saltar?’ for Spanish
(See Appendix 3). Each participant was asked about only one verb. They were told to
write down their answers on the sheet provided. This task had no time limit.
Design
Language (English and Spanish) and verb category (Move, Walk, Run and Jump)
were the between-subjects independent variables. The number of semantic features
contained in participants’ definitions was the dependent variable.
Coding
In order to consistently name the semantic features which participants either listed or
made explicit in their definitions, we took into account those outlined in the
methodology section in Chapter 5.
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6.2.3. Results
Overall, the following semantic information was included in participants’ responses
across the four motion verbs: type of motion (self-contained and translational
motion), agentivity (self-agentive, non-agentive, agentive motion), Figure (human,
non-human), Manner (use of legs, feet; use of arms; push off ground into air; ‘Rate’,
‘Forced Motion’) and Path (any Path, vertical Path, horizontal Path). For ease of
crosslinguistic comparison, one table for each motion verb is displayed; tables group
results from the two language groups and the data within each table are sorted by the
most frequently mentioned features in English.
Move / Moverse
Table 6.1 shows the semantic features contained in participants’ definitions for
English move and Spanish moverse as well as the percentage of participants per
language who included each feature.
ENGLISH
SPANISH
Translational Motion
26.92%
42.86%
Agentive Motion
19.23%
0.00%
Non-human Figure
19.23%
3.57%
Human Figure
11.54%
7.14%
Self-Agentive Motion
7.69%
3.57%
Self-contained Motion
7.69%
39.29%
Any Path
3.85%
0.00%
Manner
3.85%
3.57%
100.00%
100.00%
TOTAL
Table 6.1. Semantic information included in definitions of move / moverse
As predicted, both English and Spanish participants considered that these verbs refer
to translational and self-contained motion. Moreover, both language groups included
in their definitions that these verbs denote self-agentive motion, motion of human
and non-human Figures (such as animals) and motion in a particular Manner. Unlike
Spanish participants, English participants also made reference to agentive uses of
move (e.g., ‘displacement of a physical object through time or space. Can be
228
accomplished through external or internal forces’) and to the possibility of the Figure
following any Path (e.g., ‘to go in many directions’).
Walk / Andar
As Table 6.2 illustrates, English walk and Spanish andar are generally defined as
particular ways of locomotion by moving one’s legs/feet in order to go somewhere;
‘Use of legs, feet’ and ‘Translational Motion’ were the most frequent defining
features across the two language groups. These results support our predictions. It
should also be noted that a higher percentage of Spanish participants talked about
‘Translational Motion’ (i.e., Spanish, 41.18% vs. English, 26.32%). In addition, these
verbs were also defined in terms of a slow rate of motion (e.g., ‘non strained pace’,
‘slow pace’), and explicit mention to human Figures was common, although Spanish
participants also included animals in their definitions: ‘acción que implica un
movimiento animal o humano a través de las piernas’, lit. ‘action that implies an
animal or human movement by using the legs’). Unlike walk, Spanish andar is
additionally described as a self-agentive motion verb (e.g., ‘desplazarse
voluntariamente’, lit. ‘to change one’s location voluntarily’) in which the Figure can
follow any Path (e.g., ‘en cualquier dirección’ lit. ‘in any direction’).
ENGLISH
SPANISH
Use of legs, feet
47.37%
29.41%
26.32%
41.18%
Rate
21.05%
5.88%
Human Figure
5.26%
5.88%
Any Path
0.00%
5.88%
Non-human Figure
0.00%
5.88%
Self-Agentive Motion
0.00%
5.88%
100.00%
100.00%
TOTAL
Table 6.2. Semantic information included in definitions of walk / andar
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Run / Correr
Interestingly, seven English participants defined run in terms of walking and three
did in terms of jogging 2 . Five Spanish participants defined correr in terms of
walking 3 . Table 6.3 summarises the semantic features contained in participants’
definitions for these verbs and the total percentage of participants who mentioned
each feature.
ENGLISH
SPANISH
Rate
30.77%
41.18%
Use of legs, feet
20.51%
17.65%
15.38%
32.35%
Use of arms
12.82%
0.00%
Human Figure
7.69%
2.94%
Any Path
5.13%
2.94%
Non-human Figure
5.13%
0.00%
Push off ground into air
2.56%
2.94%
100.00%
100.00%
TOTAL
Table 6.3. Semantic information included in definitions for run / correr
On the whole, ‘Rate’ is the most frequent defining feature across the two languages.
Furthermore, participants frequently described run and correr as motion verbs
denoting that the Figure goes from one place to another (i.e., translational motion).
Thus, as predicted, fast rate of motion and translational motion seem to be part of the
meaning of run and correr. As with walk-andar, Spanish participants made reference
to ‘Translational Motion’ more often than English participants (i.e., Spanish, 32.35%
vs. English, 15.38%). Additionally, English participants specified in their definitions
2
As examples, English participants provided these definitions: ‘it is similar to walking but faster’, ‘to
run is to use one's legs as a form of locomotion, but at a faster rate than walking’, ‘to run is to move
faster than jogging’.
3
By way of illustration, Spanish participants provided definitions such as: ‘desplazarse rápidamente,
caminar muy deprisa’, literally, ‘to change one’s location quickly, to walk very fast/quickly’; ‘modo
natural de desplazarse un ser humano, parecido a caminar’, literally, ‘natural way of human
locomotion, similar to walk’.
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the way in which the Figure moves its arms, such as ‘arms move back and forth
while bent at elbow’ and ‘to run is to move quickly while bending your legs. You use
your arms and go very fast’.
Jump / Saltar
Table 6.4 summarises the semantic information contained in participants’ definitions
for jump and saltar and the percentage of participants who mentioned each feature in
their definitions.
ENGLISH
SPANISH
Push off ground into air
29.63%
27.03%
Vertical Path
25.93%
21.62%
Forced motion
18.52%
10.81%
Use of legs, feet
18.52%
27.03%
Human Figure
3.70%
0.00%
Use of arms
3.70%
0.00%
Avoid an obstacle
0.00%
2.70%
Horizontal Path
0.00%
5.41%
Rate of Motion
0.00%
2.70%
0.00%
2.70%
100.00%
100.00%
TOTAL
Table 6.4. Semantic information included in definitions for jump / saltar
As we saw with run-correr, participants described motion verbs using other motion
verbs; one English participant defined jump using hop 4 and another using bounce 5 .
These motion verbs are manner-of-motion verbs; the former was analysed in Chapter
5 as a way of jumping (‘Motor Pattern’ category within translational motion)
4
The participant’s definition was: ‘Hop. Moving up and down on your two feet in place. Movement
of the two feet and legs at the same time’.
5
The participant’s definition was: ‘Bouncing up and down, being lifted off the ground by one’s own
force. A person going up off the ground, then coming back down’.
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whereas the latter was included within the self-contained manner category ‘Bounce’.
In Spanish, one participant defined saltar by relating it to caminar 6 ‘to walk’.
On the whole, the first four features, namely, ‘Push off ground into air’,
‘Vertical Path’, ‘Forced Motion’ and ‘Use of legs, feet’ were the most frequently
mentioned features in participants’ definitions across the two languages.
Additionally, English participants made explicit mention of a human Figure which
might use his/her arms in order to jump higher; Spanish participants included in their
definitions the possibility of avoidance of an obstacle, horizontal paths (forwards)
and fast rate of motion. Unlike in definitions for move, walk and run, only one
Spanish participant mentioned that saltar denotes the Figure’s change of location
(‘Translational Motion’). Therefore, it might be concluded that translational motion
does not seem to be a defining feature for jump, at least according to our English
participants, though it might be for Spanish saltar.
In line with our predictions, move and moverse are motion verbs which denote both
translational and self-contained motion; walk and andar are typically defined as the
most basic human motor pattern in order to change one’s location; run and correr are
translational motion verbs characterised by a fast way of moving by using one’s legs;
and jump and saltar are motion verbs defined by a Figure’s pushing off the ground.
Despite the similarities in their definitions, some crosslinguistic differences
have also been pointed out. In particular, English speakers included in their
definitions information about the manner in which the Figure moves his/her arms
while walking, and occasionally while running and jumping. Explicit mention of this
sort of manner information is lacking from Spanish definitions. This suggests that
Spanish speakers might pay less attention to additional manner details of the
walking, running or jumping events. Moreover, it was noted that Spanish participants
generally mentioned ‘Translational Motion’ in their definitions more frequently than
English participants; this might suggest that the Figure’s change of location is a more
6
The participant’s definition was: ‘desplazarse dando saltos, caminar dando saltos’, literally, ‘to
change one’s location by giving jumps, walk giving jumps’.
232
prominent part of the semantics of these Spanish motion verbs. Finally, it was found
that, unlike in definitions for move, walk and run, none of the English participants
and only one Spanish participant mentioned that saltar denotes the Figure’s change
of location. In consequence, it might be argued that translational motion does not
seem to be a defining feature for jump but it might be so for its Spanish counterpart.
Coming back to our discussion about these verbs in the previous chapter, it should be
recalled that dictionary definitions included references to both translational motion
and self-contained motion for jump and saltar, but we argued that jumping verbs are
very much connected to self-contained motion as the Figure does not necessarily
change its location while performing these activities. All in all, it could be concluded
that jump and saltar are self-contained motion activities which can or cannot occur in
the course of the Figure’s translational motion (e.g., while walking, running, etc),
whereas walk-andar and run-correr typically are translational motion activities.
Interestingly enough, English and Spanish participants defined run-correr
and jump-saltar in terms of other motion verbs. Run and correr were defined in
terms of walking with the explicit mention of a faster speed; this might be interpreted
as if run and correr are rapid ways of walking. Jump was defined by mentioning two
specific manner verbs, whereas saltar was defined in relation to andar ‘to walk’.
This suggests that saltar might be seen as a particular way of moving which tends to
take place while walking, and thus, this might explain why Spanish saltar, unlike its
English counterpart, was defined as a translational motion verb.
On the whole, this experimental study provides us with the first insights into
speakers’ representations of some basic motion verbs. In addition, it examined how
the different types of semantic information employed for the semantic analysis in
Chapter 5 come into play when examining speakers’ definitions of these motion
verbs.
233
6.3. Walking, running and jumping Verbs
6.3.1. Introduction
The semantic analysis of English and Spanish motion verb lexicons has
shown that both languages exhibit greater manner granularity of walking verbs over
running and jumping verbs. In this section we report an experimental study in which
we intend to provide empirical evidence for these findings. The method used is
known as ‘Free Listing’ or ‘The Production Method’. Categorisation research during
the 70s (cf. Battig & Montague, 1969; Freedman & Loftus, 1971; Rosch, 1973,
1975) showed that participants list the best examples or prototypical members of a
category first. Furthermore, it has been found that (a) the items which were listed
first are more entrenched and more frequently used than the ones listed later or even
no listed at all, and that (b) the mean number of listed items is correlated with the
total number of items in the category. Therefore, participants would list more items
for wider categories (e.g., ‘Move’) than for narrower ones (e.g., ‘Jump’).
The research questions of this study are (1) whether English speakers would
list more manner-of-motion verbs for all categories than would Spanish speakers; (2)
whether, across languages, the Move category would contain the greatest variety of
manner-of-motion verbs, and (3) whether the Walk category would be richer or more
varied in terms of manner verbs than the Run or Jump categories. Additionally, we
would like to identify the prototypical verbs for each motor pattern category in
addition to the prototypical verbs for the superordinate category ‘Move’.
Our predictions are the following: first, English speakers will list far more
manner verbs for each category than will Spanish participants, as the English manner
lexicon is richer. Second, for both languages, participants will list more manner verbs
for the ‘Move’ category than for the other three categories as move is their
superordinate verb. Third, a higher number of manner verbs will be listed for the
‘Walk’ category over the ‘Run’ and ‘Jump’ categories, as walking is hypothesised to
be a more basic human motion activity than running and jumping.
234
6.3.2. Method
Subjects
The participants in Study 1 (the Definition and Feature Listing task) also participated
in this study. Care was taken to ensure they did not get the same verb in both tasks.
64 English speakers (19 for ‘Move’, 15 each for the categories ‘Walk’, ‘Run’, and
‘Jump’) and 68 Spanish speakers (17 for each verb category) took part in the study.
English speakers were undergraduate students at the University of Louisiana at
Lafayette (US); Spanish speakers were undergraduate students at the University of
Murcia (Spain). All participants volunteered to participate.
Procedure
We asked our participants ‘In what ways can a human move / walk / run / jump?’ for
English and ‘¿De qué modos puede una persona moverse / andar / correr / saltar?’ for
Spanish. Each participant was asked about only one verb (either move or walk or run
or jump). The instructions were given in written form (see Appendix 3). Participants
were told to write down all the verbs which answer the question on the sheet
provided. A time limit of 1 minute was given.
Design
Language (English and Spanish) and verb category (Move, Walk, Run and Jump)
were between-subjects independent variables. The number of listed motion verbs was
the dependent variable.
Coding
Our participants listed verbs which do not pertain to motion (e.g., sing, talk, think,
touch, jugar ‘play’, titubear ‘to hesitate’), as well as adverbs (e.g., fast, slow, high,
far, backwards, sideways, upside down, despacio ‘slow’), noun phrases (e.g., one
foot, both feet, inside, salto de longitud ‘long jump’) and prepositional phrases (e.g.,
a saltos ‘by jumps’, de espaldas ‘by going backwards’, de puntillas ‘on tiptoes’).
Moreover, participants listed a wide range of motion verbs other than manner verbs
(e.g., path verbs, verbs encoding Figure, general motion verbs, etc) and collocations
or complex verb phrases (e.g., make your way, drag your feet, hacer footing lit. ‘do
235
footing’, darse prisa ‘hurry up’). These items were left out from the analyses which
were carried out to test the three predictions regarding the size of the manner-ofmotion lexicons in English and Spanish. However, their presence across subjects
should not be overlooked 7 and their occurrences in both languages have been
quantified in the next section.
6.3.3. Results
LISTED ITEMS
For clarity of exposition, we begin with what English speakers responded when
asked about each verb category and then we move on with Spanish speakers’
responses. After this, a summary table will be presented (Table 6.5).
‘Move’: 19 English participants listed 186 items, out of which 168 were all
motion verbs (90.32% of participants’ responses, 63 verb types). The other 18 items
(9.68% of participants’ responses) were: 5 non-motion verbs (babble, darf?, sing,
talk, touch, write), 3 adverbs (quick, fast (2 tokens), slow(2 tokens)), 2 noun phrases
(both feet, one foot), and 5 adverbs 8 (backwards, forwards, sideways, upside down,
rightside up). Within motion verbs, exercise, fight, kick (2 tokens), knee, nod and
punch were listed in addition to 3 path verb types (fall (3 tokens), go (2 tokens),
reach) and 53 manner types. Manner verbs amount to 155 occurrences or tokens
(83.33% of the responses): bend (2) 9 , bicycle, bike, bounce (2), climb, crawl, dance
(6), drive (3), duck-walk, flee, fly (5), glide (2), hop (6), jog (10), jump (12), leap (2),
pace, run (18), shake (2), shiver, shuffle, skate (2), ski (3), skip (9), slide (3), slither,
7
Two participants for English walk, six each for English run and jump only listed adverbs and
satellites. One participant for Spanish run and three for Spanish jump only listed adverbials, namely,
adverbs, prepositional phrases and noun phrases encoding manner information.
8
This group of adverbs denotes that the Figure is moving along an unspecified path which seems to be
defined in terms of the frame of reference of the Figure, and not relative to an external frame of
reference. It could be argued, however, that they also refer to the way the Figure is moving, for
example, in backwards the Figure moves facing in the opposite direction (cf. Feist, submitted).
9
The number in brackets refers to the number of occurrences or tokens, that is, the number of times
that the item was listed by participants. When an item is not followed by a number, it means that it
was just listed once across participants.
236
snowboard, spring, sprint, squat, step, stomp, stretch, stroll (3), strut, stumble, sway
(2), swim (6), swing (2), teeter, throw, tiptoe (2), totter, trip (2), trot, turn (2), twirl,
twist, waddle, walk (16), waltz (2), wave, wiggle, wobble (2).
‘Walk’: 15 English participants listed 90 items, out of which 71 were motion
verbs (78.89% of participants’ responses, 42 verb types) and 19 items (21.11%, 12
types) were adverbs expressing manner (11 types: angry, brisk (2), goofy, loud, quick
(2), soft, tiresome, slowly, hurriedly, slow (3), fast (4)) and a non-motion verb
(think). Within motion verbs, 2 complex verb phrases (drag your feet, make your
way), 2 agentive verbs (lift, carry), the general motion verb move (5 tokens), 2 Path
verbs (go, fall), the verb walk and 34 manner verb types were listed (65.56% of the
total responses, 59 occurrences). Participants listed the following manner verbs:
amble, careen, frolick, gallop (3), glide, hop (3), jog (3), jump, limp, lope, lumber,
march, moonwalk, pace (2), powerwalk, propel, run (7), saunter, sidle, skip (4),
slide, slither (2), sneak, sprint, stamp, step (2), storm, stretch, stride (2), stroll (3),
strut (4), travel, trot, waddle. Note that the verb walk was listed once.
‘Run’: 15 English participants listed 52 items, out of which 24 were motion
verbs (46.15% of participants’ responses, 12 verb types) and 28 items (53.85% , 15
types) were: 1 noun (inside), 6 satellites (away, up, to, into, from, down), 18
occurrences of adverbs (quickly, slowly, quietly, powerfully, fast, slow) and two
prepositional phrases (around the block, in shoes). In addition, within the group of
motion verbs, the verb move (1 occurrence) and 11 manner verb types were listed
with a total of 23 occurrences (44.23% of all responses): dart, gallop (2), hop, jog
(5), leap, race (2), skip (3), speed, sprint (3), trample, walk (3).
‘Jump’: 15 English participants listed 95 items, out of which 42 were motion
verbs (44.21% of participants’ responses, 13 verb types) and 53 items (57.61%, 39
types) were as follows: 1 non-motion verb (make air), 18 occurrences of adverbs and
adjectives (one-legged, aggressive, elongated, graceful, long, loud, mass up, pretty,
short, weak, fast, high, slow, low), 22 occurrences of satellites (above, across,
around, away, down, from, into, off, onto, out, over, round, to, under, up), and 12
occurrences of adverbs (back, backward, far, forward, forward and backward, near,
side-to-side, sideways, up and down). These items amount to 57.61% of English
participants’ responses. Within motion verbs, the verb jump was listed once, 2 other
237
motion verbs (push, release), 2 path verbs (lift (2), rise) and 9 manner verb types
were listed with a total of 36 occurrences (bounce (5), bound (2), flip, glide, hop (9),
leap (8), run, skip (7), spring (2)). Manner verbs amount to 37.89% of participants’
responses.
‘Moverse’: 17 Spanish participants listed 145 items, all of which were verbs
(45 verb types). Within these verbs, 2 non-motion verbs (soñar ‘to dream’, jugar ‘to
play’), 7 complex verb phrases (hacer footing lit.‘do footing’, hacer gestos ‘make
gestures’, dar un puñetazo ‘give a punch’, ir de puntillas (2 tokens) ‘to go on
tiptoes’, ir agachado ‘to go with a crouched posture’, ir a la pata coja ‘to go by
moving on one leg’, saltar a la pata coja ‘to jump on one leg’), 19 occurrences of
Path verbs (ir ‘to go’, bajar ‘to go down’, entrar ‘to enter’, subir ‘to go up’, salir ‘to
exit’, volver ‘to go back’), 1 motion verb encoding an unspecified ground (recorrer
‘to move around an area’), 2 general motion verbs (moverse ‘to move’, desplazarse
‘to change one’s location’) and 32 manner verb types were listed. These manner
verbs amount to 113 occurrences, that is, 77.93% of the participants’ responses:
agacharse ‘to crouch’, andar ‘to walk’ (16) , arrastrarse ‘to drag oneself’ (6), bailar
‘to dance’ (4), balancearse ‘to swing oneself’, brincar ‘to jump (informal)’ (4),
bucear ‘to dive’ (3), caminar ‘to walk’ (7), cojear ‘to limp’, conducir ‘to drive’,
correr ‘to run’ (17), deslizarse ‘to slide’ (3), esquiar ‘to ski’, gatear ‘to crawl’ (5),
girarse ‘to turn oneself’, haldar ‘to walk quickly while wearing skirts, dresses’, huir
‘to flee’, levantarse ‘to get up’, nadar ‘to swim’ (4), pasear ‘to stroll’ (6), patear ‘to
go on foot around a place for a long time’, patinar ‘to skate’, pedalear ‘to pedal’,
reptar ‘to crawl, slither’, saltar ‘to jump’ (16), sentarse ‘to sit oneself down’,
tambalearse ‘to move unsteadily’, temblar ‘to tremble, to shiver’, trepar ‘to climb, to
scale’, trotar ‘to trot’ (3), viajar ‘to travel’ (3), volar ‘to fly’.
‘Andar’: 17 Spanish participants listed 82 items, out of which 68 were
motion verbs (82.93% of participants’ responses, 26 verb types) and 14 items
(17.07% of participants’ responses, 8 types) were 1 non-motion verb (titubear ‘to
hesitate’), 6 occurrences of 2 adverbs (despacio ‘slow’, rápido ‘fast’) and 7
occurrences of prepositional phrases (a gatas ‘in a crawling posture’, a pie ‘on foot’,
de espaldas ‘backwards’ (2), de puntillas ‘on tiptoes’ (2), de rodillas ‘on one’s
238
knees’). Further, within the motion verbs, participants listed andar ‘to walk’ (3
tokens), mover, moverse ‘to move’, 1 motion verb encoding an unspecified ground
(recorrer ‘to move around an area’ (2 tokens)), 1 Path verb (cruzar ‘to cross’), 3
complex verb phrases (dar saltitos lit. ‘to give small jumps’, dar tumbos ‘to go from
a place to another with no purpose’, arrastrar los pies ‘to drag one’s feet’) and 18
manner verb types. These manner verbs amount to 57 ocurrences (69.51% of
participants’ responses):
arrastrarse ‘to drag oneself’ (2), brincar ‘to jump
(informal)’ (2), caminar ‘to walk’ (5), cojear ‘to limp’, correr ‘to run’ (14),
corretear ‘to run about (playfully)’, deambular ‘to wander about’, deslizarse ‘to
slide’, esprintar ‘to sprint’, gatear ‘to crawl’ (3), pasear ‘to stroll’ (7), patear ‘to go
on foot around a place for a long time’ (2), pedalear ‘to pedal’, rondar ‘to be on
patrol, to prowl about’, saltar ‘to jump’ (9), trotar ‘to trot’ (4), vagabundear ‘to
wander’, vagar ‘to wander’.
‘Correr’: 17 Spanish subject listed 63 items, out of which 45 were motion
verbs (71.43% of participants’ responses, 19 verb types) and 18 items (28.57% of
participants’ responses, 15 types) were 1 non-motion verb (respirar ‘to breathe’), 11
occurrences of adverbs and adjectives (deprisa ‘fast’, despacio ‘slow’, lenta ‘slow’,
lentamente ‘slowly’, lentísima ‘really slow’, muy lenta ‘really slow’, rapidísimo
‘really fast’, rápido ‘quick, fast’, super lento ‘really slow’) and 6 occurrences of
prepositional phrases (a pasos cortos ‘with short steps’, a pasos largos ‘with long
steps’, a saltos ‘with jumps’, con ayuda ‘with help’, en sprint ‘in sprint’). Within
motion verbs, 4 complex verb phrases (hacer footing lit. ‘to do jogging’ (3), darse
prisa ‘to hurry up’), the general verb moverse ‘to move oneself’, the verb correr ‘to
run’ and 15 manner verb types were listed. These manner verbs amount to 36
occurrences (57.14% of responses): acelerar ‘to speed up’ (3), aligerar ‘to hurry up’
(2), andar ‘to walk’ (3), apresurarse ‘to hurry up’ (2), arrastrarse ‘to drag oneself’,
brincar ‘to jump (informal)’, caminar ‘to walk’ (2), corretear ‘to run about’, galopar
‘to gallop’(5), gatear ‘to crawl’, huir ‘to flee’, pasear ‘to stroll’, saltar (2), trotar ‘to
trot’ (10), zanquear ‘to stride’.
‘Saltar’: 17 Spanish subjects listed 68 items, out of which 43 were verbs
(63.24% of participants’ responses, 25 verb types) and the remaining of the 25 items
(36.76%, 25 types) were 2 noun phrases (pies juntos ‘both feet together’, salto de
239
longitud ‘long jump’), 13 occurrences of adverbs and adjectives (alto ‘high’, bajo
‘low’, bien ‘good, well’, cerca ‘close, near’, flojo ‘weak’, fuerte ‘strong’, largo
‘long’, lejos ‘far’, mal ‘badly’, mucho ‘a lot’, muy alto ‘very high’, muy bajo ‘very
low’, poco ‘little’), 6 prepositional phrases expressing manner (a la comba ‘using a
rope’, a la pata coja ‘to go by moving on one leg’, a pies juntillas ‘both feet
together’, a zancadas ‘with strides or long steps’, de cabeza ‘headfirst, headlong
manner’, de forma rapida ‘in a fast way’), and 4 prepositional phrases 10 (hacia
arriba ‘upwards’, hacia delante ‘forwards, to the front’, hacia detrás ‘backwards’,
hacia un lado ‘to one side’). In addition, 6 complex verb phrases (abrirse de piernas
‘to open one’s legs’, articular los huesos ‘to articulate one’s bones’, dar volteretas
lit. ‘to give turns’, dar saltos lit. ‘to give jumps’, desplegar las piernas ‘to stretch
one’s legs out’, flexionar las piernas ‘to bend one’s legs’), 3 Path verbs (subir ‘to go
up, ascend’, arrimarse ‘to go closer to’, avanzar ‘to advance’ (2)), 2 general motion
verbs (moverse ‘to move oneself’, desplazarse ‘to change one’s position’), the verb
saltar ‘to jump’ and 13 manner verb types were listed (25 occurrences, 36.76% of
their total responses). The listed manner verbs were the following ones: agacharse
‘to crouch oneself’ (2), andar ‘to walk’, bailar ‘to dance’, botar ‘to bound’ (2),
brincar ‘to jump (informal)’ (7), cojear ‘to limp’, correr ‘to run’ (2), girar ‘to turn’
(2), impulsarse ‘to propel oneself’ (3), rebotar ‘to rebound’, tambalearse ‘to move
unsteadily’, tirarse ‘to throw oneself’, trotar ‘to trot’.
Table 6.5 summarises the percentage of listed motion verbs and other listed
items per language and verb category. Moreover, the total percentage of manner verb
responses is also displayed.
10
As seen with the English adverbs forwards, backwards, sideways, etc, these prepositional phrases
denote a path of motion relative to the Figure. They might be considered deictic paths.
240
ENGLISH
MOVE
SPANISH
MOVERSE
Other items
9.68%
Other items
1.38%
Motion verbs 90.32%
Motion verbs 98.62%
Manner verbs 83.33%
Manner verbs 77.93%
WALK
ANDAR
Other items
21.11%
Other items
17.08%
Motion verbs 78.89%
Motion verbs 82.93%
Manner verbs 69.56%
Manner verbs 69.51%
RUN
CORRER
Other items
53.85%
Other items
28.57%
Motion verbs 46.15%
Motion verbs 71.43%
Manner verbs 44.74%
Manner verbs 57.15%
JUMP
SALTAR
Other items
55.79%
Other items
36.76%
Motion verbs 44.21%
Motion verbs 63.24%
Manner verbs 37.89%
Manner verbs 36.76%
Table 6.5. General distribution of listed items per verb category in English and in Spanish
Overall, a general decrease in the listing of motion verbs and, in particular, of
manner-of-motion verbs can be observed as one moves down in the table from the
category ‘Move’ to the category ‘Jump’. Across languages, participants listed the
highest percentage of motion verbs and of manner verbs for the category ‘Move’;
however, they tended to list other items (e.g., non-motion verbs, adverbs,
prepositional phrases) much more frequently when they were asked to list verbs for
‘Walk’, ‘Run’, and ‘Jump’.
PROTOTYPICAL VERBS (i.e., Verbs listed as first item)
One of the research interests in this study was to find out which motion verbs are the
most prototypical for the categories of ‘Move’, ‘Walk’, ‘Run’, and ‘Jump’ in English
and Spanish. As stated earlier, categorisation research (e.g., Rosch, 1973, 1975) has
shown that participants list the best examples or prototypical members of a category
first. Thus, by examining the motion verbs which were listed as first items, the
prototypical verbs for these four categories can be singled out.
Table 6.6 shows all motion verbs, but also other lexical units (e.g., nonmotion verbs, adverbs) which were listed as first item per verb category and per
language. Furthermore, it displays the number of tokens or occurrences and the
frequency as first listed item across participants.
242
ENGLISH
SPANISH
VERB CATEGORY
#
%
VERB CATEGORY
#
%
MOVE
19
100.00%
MOVERSE
17
100.00%
walk
7
36.84%
andar ‘to walk’
9
52.94%
jump
5
26.32%
saltar ‘to jump’
4
23.53%
run
4
21.05%
correr ‘to run’
3
17.65%
caminar ‘to walk’
1
5.88%
bike
1
5.26%
dance
Other items:
quick
WALK
1
5.26%
1
5.26%
15
100.00%
ANDAR
17
100.00%
run
3
20.00%
correr ‘to run’
5
29.41%
stroll
3
20.00%
andar ‘to walk’
3
17.65%
move
2
13.33%
2
11.76%
hop
1
6.67%
caminar ‘to walk’
2
11.76%
march
1
6.67%
deambular ‘to wander about’
1
5.88%
strut
1
6.67%
walk
1
6.67%
4
23.53%
100.00%
Other items:
titubear ‘to hesitate’, despacio
‘slow’, rápido ‘fast’, a pie ‘on
foot’
CORRER
17
100.00%
26.67%
trotar ‘to trot’
7
41.18%
2
13.33%
2
11.76%
gallop
1
6.67%
corretear ‘to run about’
1
5.88%
move
1
6.67%
correr ‘to run’
1
5.88%
race
1
6.67%
arrastrarse ‘to drag oneself’
1
5.88%
apresurarse ‘to hurry’
1
5.88%
andar ‘to walk’
1
5.88%
1
5.88%
2
11.76%
17
100.00%
5
29.41%
Other items:
quick, fast, slow
3
20.00%
RUN
15
jog
4
walk
Other items:
fast (3), quickly (3)
JUMP
15
hop
3
6
acelerar ‘to speed up’
Other items:
40.00%
rápido ‘fast’, a saltos ‘by jumps’
100.00%
SALTAR
20.00%
brincar ‘to jump’
skip
2
13.33%
3
17.65%
leap
2
13.33%
correr ‘to run’
2
11.76%
rise
1
6.67%
2
11.76%
jump
1
6.67%
1
5.88%
Other items:
high (4), up (1), over
(1)
6
40.00%
impulsarse ‘to propel oneself’
tambalearse ‘to move or go
unsteadily’
Other items:
a la pata coja ‘by jumping on
one leg’, mucho ‘a lot’, alto
‘high’, salto de longitud ‘a long
jump’
4
23.53%
Table 6.6. Motion verbs, adverbials and satellites listed as first item (per category and language)
243
Move / Moverse
For these categories both English and Spanish participants listed walk-andar, jumpsaltar, and run-correr as the most frequent first items. Surprisingly, participants
more frequently listed jump-saltar (English: 27.78%; Spanish: 23.53%) as first item
than run-correr (English, 22.22%; Spanish, 17.65%). In English, participants listed
the verb dance and a vehicle name (bike) as first items, which ties in nicely with our
observations on the prolific use of vehicle names and dance names as motion verbs.
Walk / Andar
Across languages, participants listed run, correr ‘to run’, hop and saltar ‘to jump’ as
first items; moreover, they even listed the same verb they were being asked for.
Above all, the most frequent verbs as first items were run and stroll for English and
correr ‘to run’ and andar ‘to walk’ for Spanish. Apart from these verbs, English
participants listed three fine-grained manner verbs, i.e., stroll (Leisurely Motion,
State of the Figure-relaxed), march (Characteristic use of lower body-regular steps)
and strut (State of the Figure-proud), and Spanish participants listed caminar ‘to
walk’ and deambular ‘to wander about’ (No aim in motion).
Run / Correr
As we have seen with the previous categories, participants listed verbs which have
not been considered ways of running; English participants listed walk and move and
Spanish participants listed saltar ‘to jump’, andar ‘to walk’ and correr ‘to run’.
Additionally, they listed more specific manner verbs: jog (Rate-slow and regular),
gallop (Rate-fast) and race (Rate-fast) for English, and trotar ‘to trot’ (Rate-fast),
corretear ‘to run about playfully’ (Playful Motion), arrastrarse ‘to drag oneself’
(Contact between Figure and Ground; Body close to the Ground), apresurarse ‘to
hurry’ (Rate-increase), acelerar ‘to speed up’ (Rate-increase).
Jump / Saltar
Once again, participants responded with the same verb about which they were asked
as first items. In addition, Spanish participants listed correr ‘to run’ as a way of
jumping, and one English participant listed the path verb rise (Earth-based
244
orientation: upwards) as a way of jumping. Apart from these verbs, in English,
participants listed more frequently as first items the following verbs: hop
(Characteristic use of lower body: on two legs for animals and on one for humans),
skip (Characteristic use of lower body: one jump after each step), and leap
(Characteristic use of lower body: a long, high jump); in Spanish, participants listed
brincar ‘to jump (informal)’ as the most frequent first item, but also listed verbs such
as impulsarse ‘to propel oneself’ and tambalearse ‘to move or go unsteadily’
(Unsteady Motion).
MANNER-OF-MOTION VERB LEXICONS
Now that we know which verbs are the most prototypical for the four motion
categories, we go on to report the subjects and items analyses which aim to provide
an answer to our research questions. As stated in the introduction, our research
questions are the following: (1) Will English speakers list more manner-of-motion
verbs for all verb categories than will Spanish speakers? (2) Will the ‘Move’
category contain the greatest variety of manner across languages? And (3) will the
‘Walk’ category be richer than the ‘Run’ or ‘Jump’ category across languages?
Recall that it was common for participants to list adverbs, satellites and other
motion verbs. Some of them did not list any manner verb at all; that was the case for
14 English participants (2 for ‘Walk’, 6 for ‘Run’ and 6 for ‘Jump’), and for 4
Spanish participants (1 for ‘Run’ and 3 for ‘Jump’). It should be noted that the next
analyses concentrate solely on manner-of-motion verbs; general motion verbs, path
verbs, collocations and complex verb phrases were left out. Furthermore, when
participants responded with the same superordinate verb as the one they were being
asked about, that verb was not counted for these analyses.
Subjects analysis 11
A 2 (Language: English, Spanish) by 4 (verb category: Move, Walk, Run, Jump)
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed, in which language and verb
11
The reader should note that the subjects analysis uses occurrences of manner verbs and not manner
verb types. Therefore, the fact that one language group might list a larger number of occurrences of
manner verbs does not mean that participants listed a larger variety of manner verbs. For that reason,
an items analysis looking at manner verb types was also carried out.
245
category are between-subjects factors. This analysis revealed two main effects: a
language effect and a verb effect, but no interaction.
This analysis showed that participants in the two language groups differed
significantly in the number of manner verbs they listed, F(1,113) = 50.365, p < 0.05;
English participants overall listed more occurrences of manner verbs (M = 4.89, SE =
0.309) than did Spanish participants (M = 3.508, SE = 0.259). Moreover, the effect of
verb category also reached significance, F(3, 113) = 35.758, p < 0.05. On average,
both language groups listed more occurrences of manner verbs for Move (English M
= 8.10, SD = 3.07; Spanish M = 6.65, SD = 2.06) than for any of the other categories.
Furthermore, English participants listed a higher number of manner verbs for Walk
(M = 4.92, SD = 3.23) than for Run (M = 2.55, SD = 1.81) and Jump (M = 4, SD =
1.12). To our surprise, on average, English speakers listed more manner verbs for
Jump than for Run. On the other hand, Spanish participants listed the highest number
of manner verbs for Walk (M = 3.35, SD = 1.41), then for Run (M = 2.25, SD = 1)
and the fewest number of manner verbs for Jump (M = 1.78, SD = 0.80). These
findings are summarized in Figure 6.1.
Six t-tests per language group were performed to further assess whether the
number of listed manner verbs differed among verb categories. These analyses
revealed that the number of verbs listed differed significantly between Move and
Walk (English t(29) = 2.740, p < 0.05; Spanish t(32) = 5.439, p < 0.05), Move and
Run (English t(26) = 4.994, p < 0.05; Spanish t(31) = 7.720, p < 0.05). For Move and
Jump, Walk and Run, and for Run and Jump there were significant differences in the
number of listed manner verbs in Spanish (Move and Jump: t(29) = 8.307, p < 0.05;
Walk and Run: t(31) = 2.754, p < 0.05; Run and Jump: t(28) = 1.389, p < 0.05), but
marginal ones in English (Move and Jump: English t(26) = 1.937, p = 0.07; Walk and
Run: English t(19) = 1.937, p = 0.0677; Run and Jump: t(16) = -2.036, p = 0.058).
Finally, for Walk and Jump, the analysis reached significance for Spanish (t(29) =
3.686, p = 0.05), but it did not for English (t(19) = 0.798, ns)
246
Number of listed verbs
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
ENGLISH
SPANISH
MOVE
WALK
RUN
JUMP
Verb Category
Figure 6.1. Listed manner verbs per category and language
Items analysis
With respect to manner verb types, across the two languages the category ‘Move’
includes the greatest variety of manner verbs, followed by ‘Walk’, then by ‘Run’ and
finally by ‘Jump’ (Figure 6.2).
Furthermore, there was a statistically marginal difference in the number of
manner verb types listed by English and Spanish participants, Chi-square (3) = 7.08,
0.10 > p > 0.05. A higher number of manner verb types were listed in English for the
categories Move (English = 53; Spanish = 32) and Walk (English = 34; Spanish =
18), whereas more manner verb types were listed in Spannish for Run (English = 11;
Spanish = 15) and Jump (English = 9; Spanish = 13).
60
Number of Verb Types
50
40
ENGLISH
30
SPANISH
20
10
0
MOVE
WALK
RUN
JUMP
Verb Category
Figure 6.2. Number of manner verb types per category and language
247
In this analysis, we included all manner verbs listed by participants (see Appendix 4
for the list of manner verbs per language and category). After a close examination of
what participants responded for ‘Run’ and ‘Jump’, we observed that they listed some
manner verbs which were not coded as running or jumping verbs in our corpus
analysis. Restricting our analysis to just those verbs which according to dictionaries
are running 12 and jumping 13 verbs, it was still found that (a) a greater variety of
running verbs than of jumping verbs were listed across languages, and that (b)
running verbs in Spanish outnumbered those of English. However, a slightly
different pattern was observed for jumping verbs; namely, English jumping verbs
surpassed those of Spanish. Finally, it should be remarked that this analysis seems to
be more an artefact of dictionary definitions than of speakers’ conceptualisations.
On the whole, it has been observed that participants often listed adverbs, satellites,
noun phrases and prepositional phrases in addition to motion verbs, especially when
responding to the ways humans walk, run and jump. A general decrease in the listing
of motion verbs and, in particular, of manner-of-motion verbs from the category
‘Move’ to the category ‘Jump’ was found. Overall, English and Spanish participants
listed the highest number of motion verbs and of manner verbs for the category
‘Move’; however, the number of motion verbs and manner verbs dropped off for
‘Walk’, then they fell further for ‘Run’ and even more for ‘Jump’. An increase in the
number of other listed items paralleled the decrease of motion verbs.
A secondary aim of this study was to find out which were the prototypical
motion verbs for each of the categories. In the case of ‘Move’, the same pattern was
found across languages: walk and andar ‘to walk’ were the most frequently listed
first items, followed by jump and saltar ‘to jump’ and by run and correr ‘to run’. For
English, bike and dance seem to be prototypical verbs for this category as well; this
12
The strict count of listed running verbs included 5 for English (gallop, jog, race, speed, sprint) and
6 for Spanish (acelerar ‘to speed up’, aligerar ‘to hurry up’, apresurarse ‘to hurry up’, corretear ‘to
run about playfully’, galopar ‘to gallop’, trotar ‘to trot’).
13
The strict count of listed jumping verbs included 5 for English (bound, hop, leap, skip, spring) and 1
for Spanish (brincar ‘to jump (informal)’).
248
suggests that vehicle verbs and dance verbs might be good members of the
superordinate category ‘Move’. With respect to the three motor pattern categories,
the three verbs naming the categories tended to appear in their responses; in other
words, participants listed as first item the same verb which they were being asked
about (e.g., walk when asked about ways of walking). Additionally, it was noted that
within each motor pattern category the other two motor pattern verbs were
sometimes listed; e.g., for ‘Walk’ in English and Spanish, run and correr were the
most frequent listed first items, which suggests that participants might not consider
these two actions (walking and running) as two disconnected motion events.
Regarding the motor patterns ‘Run’ and ‘Jump’, other verbs were the best exemplars
of these categories: jog and trotar ‘to trot’ for ‘Run’; hop and brincar ‘to jump
(informal)’ for ‘Jump’. Other verbs which were listed as first items, and thus, as good
exemplars of the three motor pattern categories are the following: stroll, march and
strut for ‘Walk’; caminar ‘to walk’ and deambular ‘to wander about’ for ‘Andar’ (‘to
walk’); gallop and race for ‘Run’; corretear ‘to run about playfully’, arrastrarse ‘to
drag oneself’, apresurarse ‘to hurry’, acelerar ‘to speed up’ for ‘Correr’ (‘to run’);
skip, leap and rise for ‘Jump’; and impulsarse ‘to propel oneself’, tambalearse ‘to
move or go unsteadily’ for ‘Saltar’ (‘to jump’). One drawback of this study is the
limited number of participants per verb category, which results in a restricted number
of motion verbs as first items. A much larger sample of participants might be needed
both to elicit more prototypical verbs for these categories and to find out whether the
verbs which have been found in this study are in reality prototypical verbs for these
categories within the languages.
Regarding our predictions about the quantitative differences in the
organisation of manner verb lexicons, our results partially support our first
prediction, which stated that English speakers would list more manner verbs for each
category than Spanish participants. In both subjects and items analyses, it has been
found out that English participants listed more manner verbs than Spanish
participants only for two of the four categories, specifically, for ‘Move’ and ‘Walk’.
Unpredictably, in Spanish more manner verbs were listed for ‘Run’ and ‘Jump’ than
in English. A possible explanation might be sought in the fact that more than half of
the responses for English ‘Run’ and ‘Jump’ were other items (i.e., no motion verbs,
249
with a total of 53.85% for ‘Run’ and 55.79% for ‘Jump’), whereas the percentage of
listed motion verbs in Spanish ‘Run’ and ‘Jump’ surpassed those of other items. This
seems to indicate either that (a) English participants might have been more
concerned with providing any answer due to the one minute time-limit of the task,
(b) it might have been difficult for them to access their manner verb lexicon for these
two categories, (which are less central to human experience than ‘Walk’) or (c) both,
i.e., because of time constraints, it was hard to access their lexicon and they thus
resorted to other items. Overall, English participants listed other items per each
category much more frequently than Spanish participants did, which might suggest
that English participants did not as closely follow the instructions given. On the other
hand, in a second items analysis which took into account a strict count of running
and jumping verbs, it was also found that Spanish running verbs exceeded English
running verbs, but it was noted that English jumping verbs outnumbered those of
Spanish.
Furthermore, it was predicted that, across languages, participants would list
more manner verbs for ‘Move’ than for the other three categories, and that, within
the motor pattern categories, they would list a higher number of manner verbs for
‘Walk’ over ‘Run’ and ‘Jump’. These two predictions were also borne out. Move and
moverse as superordinate verbs of walk, run, jump, and andar, correr, saltar yielded
a significantly higher variety of manner verbs in both language groups and a larger
number of manner verb occurrences. Also, in line with our predictions, walk and
andar ‘to walk’ generated more manner verbs than the other two less basic motor
patterns. Although no prediction was made about differences in the number of
manner verbs for the categories ‘Run’ and ‘Jump’, our results show that, for both
language groups, the ‘Run’ category presents a greater variety of manner verbs than
the ‘Jump’ category (see Appendix 4 for a full list of these verbs in alphabetical
order). Recall that in our corpus analysis, a similar pattern was found for Spanish
(i.e., 4 verbs for ‘Run’ and 3 for ‘Jump’) but the reverse was noted for English;
English jumping verbs exceeded running verbs (i.e., 11 verbs for ‘Jump’ and 7 verbs
for ‘Run’). We attributed this to the fact that dictionary definitions were not specific
about the motor pattern of many possible candidates for running verbs.
250
To summarise, the present study provides empirical evidence for the claim
that English and Spanish organise their human locomotion verb lexicon in much the
same way. Irrespective of the quantitative differences in the number of manner verbs
their lexicons have, both languages have more manner verbs specifying different
ways of walking than ways of running and jumping.
6.4. Categorisation of human locomotion verbs
6.4.1. Introduction
In this last part of the chapter, an experimental investigation on how English and
Spanish native speakers rate a list of human locomotion verbs in terms of the three
basic motor patterns ‘Walk’, ‘Run’ and ‘Jump’ is reported. As has been discussed in
Chapter 5, the semantics of motion verbs is so intricate that even dictionaries often
disagree in their definitions. While compiling and analysing our corpus of motion
verbs, we came across English and Spanish motion verbs which seem to clearly
denote that the Figure is either walking, running, or jumping, whereas other verbs
seem just to imply a specific motor pattern (i.e., dictionaries failed to agree in on a
unique motor pattern or they were not specific about one). Accordingly, the former
were analysed and grouped within the ‘Motor pattern’ categories, while the latter
were grouped in other manner categories.
The main goal of this study is to determine the specific motor pattern which
is denoted or implied by a set of human locomotion verbs. The present study was
carried out before the analysis of the motion verb lexicon was completed. For that
reason, not all conflicting verbs within our corpus were included in this study.
Additionally, this study addresses the question of whether these human locomotion
verbs are better examples of the ‘Walk’ category than of ‘Run’ and ‘Jump’. Drawing
from our previous research (i.e., corpus analysis and the free verb listing study), our
major prediction is that English and Spanish human locomotion verbs will be better
examples of ‘Walk’ than of ‘Run’ and ‘Jump’ as the majority of human locomotion
verbs seem to be walking verbs. When looking at human locomotion verbs as a
whole, participants from the two language groups will give them the highest ratings
251
as ways of/kinds of walking; on the other hand, when looking at each verb in
particular, a larger number of verbs will be rated as good exemplars of ‘Walk’
whereas fewer verbs will be rated as good exemplars of ‘Run’ and ‘Jump’.
Moreover, it is expected that some human locomotion verbs do not fit in only one of
these three motor pattern categories as the ways of moving denoted by the verbs
might occur while the Figure is walking, running or jumping.
One issue that arose when designing the study was how the question should
be worded. Research by Cruse (1989, 2004) and Miller & Fellbaum (1991) has
provided some interesting insights into verb taxonomies, concretely, into how they
seem to be organised and what kinds of semantic relations hold among their
members. Cruse (1989) remarks that the diagnostic question for noun taxonomies Is
X a kind/type of Y? does not work for verbs as well as it does for nouns; whereas the
question Is verb X-ing a way of verb Y-ing? seems to be more appropriate for verbs.
Miller & Fellbaum (1991: 216-220), much along the same lines, state that troponymy
(from Greek tropos, i.e., manner or fashion) or verb hyponymy is the most common
semantic relation among verbs. Many verbs indicate more precisely the manner of
doing something, for example, march, strut, traipse, amble, and mosey are
troponyms of to walk, that is, they are ways of walking, mutually inclusive or
temporally co-extensive with walking. Although hyponymy is quite common among
verbs, taxonomy also occurs. In Cruse’s own words (1989: 138), ‘verbs generally
seem to show hierarchical structuring to a more limited extent than nouns; however,
just as hyponymy is quite common among verbs, a relation paralleling nominal
taxonomy occurs, too’. Although the two notions are extremely difficult to tell apart,
a troponym is not the same as a taxonym 14 . Whereas many verbs can be troponyms
of a superordinate verb, only a subset of them are taxonyms of it. For example, to
travel, to walk and to run are troponyms of to move; they all are ways of moving.
However, according to Cruse, only to walk and to run are taxonyms of to move. In
sum, both troponymic (i.e., a verb X is a way of verb Y) and taxonomic relations
(i.e., a verb X is a kind of verb Y) are to be distinguished when exploring the nature
14
According to Cruse (2004: 150), taxonymy is a subtype of a hyponymy; it seems that ‘a taxonym
must engage with the meaning of its supeordinate in a particular way, by further specifying what is
distinctive about it’.
252
of verb lexicons, though troponymy (or verb hyponymy) seems to be the most
frequent semantic relation. Therefore, as a secondary aim we want to test which
question type (the way-of or the kind-of question) seems to work better when
categorising motion verbs. Thus, we predict that the way of question will yield higher
ratings than the kind of question.
6.4.2. Method
Subjects
18 adult native English speakers and 18 adult native Spanish speakers volunteered or
were paid for the participation. English participants were students at the University
of Sussex (UK). Spanish speakers were students at the Universidad de Murcia
(Spain). Participants ranged from 18 to 30 years of age.
Stimuli
Our stimuli were 111 verbs for English (108 verbs plus walk, run, jump) and 57 for
Spanish (54 verbs plus andar ‘to walk’, correr ‘to run’, and saltar ‘to jump’) (See
Appendix 5).
We created separate booklets for each language group. The instructions were
given on the first page of the booklet (Appendix 3). Each booklet was divided into 3
blocks; each block consisted of questions and rating scales for each human
locomotion verb with respect to one of the superordinate categories (Walk or Run or
Jump). The questions were one of the following two throughout the booklet: ‘Is Xing a kind of Y-ing?’ or ‘Is X-ing a way of Y-ing?’ for the English version, and ‘¿Es
X un tipo de Y?’ or ‘¿Es X una manera de Y?’ for the Spanish version. Half the
subjects received the kind-of question and the other half the way-of question. Each
question was followed by a rating scale ranging from ‘Definitely a kind/way’ – ‘Not
sure a kind/way’ – ‘Definitely not a kind/way’. It should be noted that questions
about (a) whether walk was a way/kind of running or jumping (in the Run and in the
Jump block respectively), (b) whether run was a way/kind of walking or jumping (in
the Walk and in the Jump block), and (c) whether jump was a way/kind of walking or
running (in the Walk and in the Run block) were also included. For the English
version, each booklet contained 330 questions in total, that is, 110 verbs x 3 blocks.
253
The Spanish version consisted of 168 questions in total, that is, 56 verbs x 3 blocks.
Both the questions and the blocks within each booklet were randomised across
subjects to avoid order effects.
Procedure
Participants were given the booklets and told to answer all the questions by marking
an X on any point on the scale provided. They were told not to skip any question or
look ahead in the booklet. The instructions were also given in written form on the
first page of the booklet. Participants were run in a quiet room and no time limit was
given.
Design
This study used a mixed design. There were three independent variables: language
(English, Spanish), question (kind of, way of) and superordinate verb (Walk, Run,
Jump). The language and question variables were between-subjects variables, and the
superordinate verb was a within-subjects variable. The dependent variable was the
goodness of a verb as a member of a superordinate verb, defined as the score (in
millimeters) a participant gave to a particular verb with regard to a superordinate
verb (either Walk, Run or Jump) by marking an X on the rating scale.
This scale was 102 millimeters long. It ranged from ‘Definitely a kind/way
of’ on the left (score 0) to ‘Not sure a kind/way of’ to ‘Definitely not a kind/way of’
on the right (score 102). We flipped the scores for the final coding for clarity
reasons: thus, 0 means ‘Definitely not a kind/way of’ and 102 means ‘Definitely a
kind/way of’. Thus, the higher the score a verb got, the better of an example of the
superordinate category it was.
6.4.3. Results
Two ANOVAs, one treating participants as the random effect and the other treating
items as the random effect, were carried out. The participant analysis yielded no
statistically significant results because of the limited number of participants. The
254
item analysis is reported here instead. All reported effects were significant at the p <
0.05 level.
In addition, separate ANOVAs for each human locomotion verb were carried
out to find out the motor pattern category into which the verb is best categorised.
OVERALL ANALYSIS
A 2 (Language: English, Spanish) by 2 (Question: kind of, way of) by 3
(Superordinate verb: Walk, Run, Jump) Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), in which
all factors varied within-items revealed three significant main effects and one
interaction.
The main effect of language on acceptability ratings was significant, F(1,
164) = 4.38, p < 0.05. This means that the two language groups differed in their
ratings irrespective of question type and superordinate verb. English human
locomotion verbs got higher acceptability ratings (M = 40.70, SE = 1.12) than did
Spanish human locomotion verbs (M = 36.67, SE = 1.57).
The effect of superordinate verb on acceptability ratings was also significant,
F(2, 328) = 94.56, p < 0.05. On average, verbs were rated higher with respect to
Walk (M = 57.26, SE = 1.81) than to Run (M = 37.03, SE = 1.95) and to Jump (M =
21.76, SE = 1.56). (Figure 6.3)
The analysis also revealed that the question type had a significant effect on
the ratings, F(1, 164) = 9.38, p < 0.05. On average, responses to the way-of question
received higher ratings (M = 39.67, SE = .99) than did responses to the kind-of
question (M = 37.70, SE = 1.03).
255
70
60
RATINGS
50
40
ENGLISH
30
SPANISH
20
10
0
walk
run
jump
VERB CATEGORY
Figure 6.3. Superordinate verb effect in English and Spanish
The interaction between language and question reached significance, F(1,
164) = 81.90, p < 0.05, indicating that English and Spanish participants differed in
their ratings in terms of the question type. Spanish participants gave higher ratings
for the way-of question (M = 40.56, SE = 1.61) than for the kind of question (M =
32.78, SE = 1.69). English participants gave higher ratings for the kind-of question
(M = 42.62, SE = 1.21) than for the way-of question (M = 38.78, SE = 1.15). (Figure
6.4).
RA TINGS
50
45
40
35
30
English
25
20
15
Spanish
10
5
0
way of
kind of
QUESTION TYPE
Figure 6.4. Interaction between language and question type
256
Further analyses of only English participants and only Spanish participants
were conducted to assess these effects (i.e., verb effect and question type effect) on
each language group.
English Results
A 2 (Question: kind of, way of) by 3 (Superordinate verb: Walk, Run, Jump)
ANOVA in which the two factors varied within-items revealed two main effects
(Figure 6.5 is included below for ease of illustration).
This analysis revealed a main effect of superordinate verb, F(2, 218) = 52.75,
p < 0.05. Human locomotion verbs were rated higher with regard to Walk (M =
57.35, SE = 2.18) than to Run (M = 39.88, SE = 2.24) and to Jump (M = 24.89, SE =
1.84). Separate t-tests showed that the ratings differed significantly between the
superordinate verbs Walk and Run (t(109) = 4.87, p < 0.05 ), Walk and Jump (t(109)
= 10.74, p < 0.05), and Run and Jump (t(109) = 5.04, p < 0.05).
The results also showed that the type of question asked had a significant
effect on the acceptability ratings, F(1, 109) = 28.65, p < 0.05. The kind-of questions
were rated higher (M = 42.62, SE = 1.09) than the way-of questions (M = 38.78, SE =
1.08).
No interaction between question and superordinate verb was found.
70
60
RAT INGS
50
40
way-of
30
kind-of
20
10
0
walk
run
jump
VERB C ATEGORY
Figure 6.5. English: effects of the question type and of superordinate verb
257
Spanish results
A 2 (Question: kind of, way of) by 3 (Superordinate verb: Walk, Run, Jump)
ANOVA in which question and superordinate verb varied within-items revealed
significant effects of question and of superordinate verb, but no interaction.
There was a main effect of superordinate verb, F(2, 110) = 53.45, p < 0.05.
Human locomotion verbs were rated higher with regard to Walk (M = 57.12, SE =
2.89) than to Run (M = 34.2, SE = 3.24) and to Jump (M = 18.63, SE = 2.45). Three
t-tests showed that the ratings differed significantly between the superordinate verbs
Walk and Run (t(55) = 5.87, p < 0.05), Walk and Jump (t(55) = 11.07, p < 0.05), and
Run and Jump (t(55) = 4.02, p < 0.05). (Figure 6.6).
Furthermore, the results showed that the type of question asked had a
significant effect on the acceptability ratings, F(1, 55) = 48.40, p < 0.05. The way-of
questions were rated higher (M = 40.56, SE = 1.8) than the kind-of questions (M =
32.79, SE = 1.98)
70
60
RATINGS
50
way-of
40
kind-of
30
20
10
0
walk
run
jump
VERB CATEGORY
Figure 6.6. Spanish: effects of the question type and of superordinate verb
FURTHER ANALYSES
Separate one-way ANOVAs for each of the 108 English verbs as well as for the 54
Spanish verbs were performed, with supeordinate verb (Walk, Run, Jump) as the
within-items variable. For verbs that did not clearly pattern as good ways/kinds of
only one superordinate 15 category, t-tests with Bonferroni correction were also
15
When the difference between the means was equal or less than 20.
258
carried out to test whether the ratings differed significantly between the
superordinate verbs (See Appendix 5).
These analyses revealed that (a) most verbs are good ways/kinds of one of the
superordinate categories, (b) a few of them are not good ways/kinds of any of them,
and (c) some verbs seem to be good ways/kinds of two superordinate categories (i.e.,
no significant difference was found between their ratings in terms of the two
superordinate categories). Tables 6.6 and 6.7 summarise these results for English and
Spanish respectively. The results of these analyses are also included in the last
column of our corpus of motion verbs (in Appendices 1 and 2), where they can be
easily contrasted with the results from the semantic analysis.
NUMBER
MOTOR
VERBS
PATTERN
OF VERBS
(108)
amble, clump, crawl, creep, dodder, edge, file, goosestep, hike, hobble,
inch, limp, lope, lumber, lurch, march, meander, mince, mosey, pace,
WALK
paddle, parade, perambulate, plod, promenade, prowl, ramble, roam,
rove, sashay, saunter, shamble, shuffle, sidle, slide, slink, sneak,
54
stagger, stalk, stomp, stride, strut, stump, tiptoe, toddle, totter, traipse,
tramp, trek, troop, trudge, waddle, wade, wander
RUN
JUMP
WALK-RUN
WALK-JUMP
bolt, canter, charge, chase, dart, dash, flee, gallop, hound, hurtle, race,
scurry, sprint, streak, whisk, whiz(z), zoom
bounce, hop, leap, skip, sommersault, spring, vault
dribble, hasten, hurry, nip, pad, reel, rush, scamper, scoot, scuttle,
skedaddle, skitter, sweep, trot
prance
7
14
1
0
RUN-JUMP
NONE
19
bound, caper, cavort, flounder, frisk, frolic, gambol, romp, scud, shoot,
slog, slouch, trip
13
Table 6.7. Categorisation of English human locomotion verbs
259
NUMBER
MOTOR
VERBS
PATTERN
OF VERBS
(54)
acechar ‘to stalk’, acompañar ‘to accompany’, ambular ‘to wander
about’, anadear ‘to duckwalk’, arrastrarse ‘to drag oneself’, callejear ‘to
walk around the streets’, caminar ‘to walk’, chancletear ‘to walk noisily
using flip-flops’, contonearse ‘to walk swaying one’s hips’,
contramarchar ‘to go backwards, to back’, deambular ‘to walk around’,
desandar ‘to walk back to a previous path’, desfilar ‘to walk in file, to
parade’, errar ‘to wander about’, gatear ‘to crawl’, merodear ‘to walk
WALK
around’, noctambular ‘to walk around at night’, patear ‘to stamp, to go
on foot around a place’, pavonearse ‘to strut’, recorrer ‘to move, go
31
around a place’, recorrer ‘to move, go around a place’, renquear ‘to
limp’, rondar ‘to be on patrol, to prowl about’, serpentear ‘to slither, to
meander’, taconear ‘to tap shoes with heels’, tambalearse ‘to move
unsteadily’, vagar ‘to wander about’, zancajear ‘to walk repeatedly
from one place to another’, zanquear ‘to walk with crooked legs, to
stride’, zaparrastrar ‘to move, walk dragging one’s clothing’,
zigzaguear ‘to zigzag’
acelerar ‘to accelerate’, aligerar ‘to quicken, to hurry up’, apresurarse ‘to
RUN
hurry up’, esprintar ‘to sprint’, fugarse ‘to flee, to run away’, galopar ‘to
7
gallop’, huir ‘to flee, to run away’
JUMP
brincar ‘to jump’, tropezar ‘to trip’
2
corretear ‘to run about’, desacelerar ‘to slow down’, deslizarse ‘to
WALK-RUN
slide’, esquivar ‘to avoid, to dodge’, rastrear ‘to track’, regatear ‘to
6
dribble’
WALK-JUMP
zapatear ‘to tap shoes’
1
RUN-JUMP
precipitarse ‘to fall down from a high place; to run, hurry to’
1
encorvarse ‘to bend, to curve’, pisar ‘to tread’, pisotear ‘to tread on
NONE
something repeatedly’, resbalarse ‘to slide’, retozar ‘to frolic’, trotar 16
6
‘to trot’
Table 6.8. Categorisation of Spanish human locomotion verbs
16
The analysis performed for Spanish trotar ‘to trot’ did not reach significance, suggesting that it is
not a good way/kind of walking, running or jumping; however, by looking at the mean ratings (Walk,
M = 72.33, SD = 33.82); Run, M = 81.56, SD = 27.89; Jump, M = 80.22, SD = 32) it might be argued
that Spanish trotar is a good way/kind of all three superordinate verbs as it received high ratings for
all three categories.
Recall that in addition to the questions about the 108 English verbs and the 54
Spanish verbs, questions about the goodness of each superordinate verb as a
way/kind of either of the other two superordinates were included as well. For each
superordinate verb in both languages (walk, run, jump, andar ‘to walk’, correr ‘to
run’, saltar ‘to jump’) paired t-tests were used to determine whether the verb was a
better way/kind of either of the other superordinates within the language (e.g., is
walk as good of a way/kind of run as of jump?). Only one of these analyses reached
significance: the Spanish superordinate verb correr ‘to run’ was rated higher with
regard to Andar ‘Walk’ (M = 74.94, SD = 42.04) than to Saltar ‘Jump’ (M = 28.33,
SD = 39.84), t(17) = 3.540, p < 0.05. There were no other significant differences.
In the overall analysis, our results showed a main effect of language on acceptability
ratings, namely, English human locomotion verbs got higher ratings than Spanish
human locomotion verbs. In spite of this language effect, both languages showed a
similar pattern when rating verbs in terms of the three superordinate categories:
human locomotion verbs received the highest ratings with respect to Walk, then to
Run, and the lowest ones with respect to Jump. These results can be interpreted as if
the category Walk includes the greatest number of human locomotion verbs, whereas
Run comprises fewer verbs than Walk, and Jump is the category with less verbs. On
the whole, these results support our prediction and provide further support for our
previous findings: both languages exhibit a greater variety of walking verbs over
running and jumping verbs.
Further analyses on how each individual verb was rated showed that, for
English, 54 verbs of the set of motion verbs in this study are good examples of Walk,
19 are good instances of Run and 7 of Jump; for Spanish, 31 verbs of the set of
motion verbs are good examples of Walk, 7 of Run and 2 of Jump, further supporting
our previous results. In addition, these analyses revealed that (a) most verbs are good
instances of one of the three motor patterns; (b) a few of them are not good instances
of any of the three motor patterns (e.g., bound, cavort, frolic) and (c) some verbs
seem to be good instances of two motor patterns (e.g., hasten, hurry, scoot are good
261
instances of walking and running). By ‘a verb is a good instance of’, we mean that a
verb can either denote or imply a given motor pattern when the Figure performs the
action depicted by the verb. For example, flee, fugarse and huir ‘to flee’ are not
defined in dictionaries as related to any motor pattern, but they are good instances of
running verbs according to native speakers. As pointed out in Chapter 5 (Section
5.5.1), dictionaries are not specific about the motor pattern of a large number of
verbs which encode fast rate of motion: e.g., bolt, canter, dart, dash, hasten, hurry,
hurtle, nip, race, rush, scoot, scud, scurry, scuttle, shoot, speed, spring, streak,
whisk, whiz, and zoom. This study suggests that (a) bolt, canter, dart, dash, hurtle,
race, rush, scoot, scurry, speed, streak, whisk, whiz and zoom are good instances of
‘Run’; (b) spring is a good instance of ‘Jump’; (c) scud and shoot are not good
instances of any motor pattern categories; and (d) hasten, hurry, nip and scuttle are
good instances of both ‘Run’ and ‘Walk’. In addition, many more human locomotion
verbs which denote mixed patterns have been found. This supports our prediction
that some human locomotion verbs do not fit clearly in only one of these three
categories as they might denote that the Figure could be walking and/or running
and/or jumping when performing the action labelled by the motion verb. The most
common mixed pattern in our data is that of ‘Walk’-‘Run’ (with a total of 14 English
verbs, i.e., dribble, hasten, hurry, nip, pad, reel, rush, scamper, scoot, scuttle,
skedaddle, scurry, speed, sprint, sweep and trot, and 6 Spanish verbs, i.e., corretear
‘to run about playfully’, desacelerar ‘to slow down’, deslizarse ‘to slide’, esquivar
‘to avoid, to dodge’, rastrear ‘to track’, and regatear ‘to dribble’), whereas the
patterns ‘Walk’-‘Jump’ and ‘Run’-‘Jump’ are rarer. In English, prance is the only
verb in the list of human locomotion verbs which seems to denote a way of walking
and of jumping; Spanish zapatear ‘to tap shoes’ seems also to denote a way of
walking and of jumping, and precipitarse 17 ‘to fall down from a high place; to run,
hurry to’ a way of running and of jumping. Furthermore, it has been found that trotar
‘to trot’, which is defined in dictionaries as a fast walk by horses or people, seems to
17
Two entries for this verb were created in our corpus: precipitarse1 (Path: downwards motion +
Manner: Forced Motion (energy-high)), which is good for labelling an event in which the Figure
jumps off from a high place, and precipitarse2 (Path: to/towards G + Manner: mp-run). This might
explain why this verb has been rated high in terms of both ‘Jump’ and ‘Run’.
262
fit nicely in all three motor patterns as shown by its higher ratings for all three. Last,
but not least important, some verbs which are defined in dictionaries as implying or
denoting a specific motor pattern were not categorised by native speakers as good
examples of any category. In particular, (a) posture verbs such as slouch (which can
be found in translational motion as well), encorvarse ‘to bend onself’; (b) verbs
denoting obstructed motion while walking or running (e.g., trip); (c) verbs typically
defined in dictionaries as walking and running playfully (e.g., frolic, gambol, frisk,
retozar ‘to frolic’); (d) Spanish pisar ‘to tread’, pisotear ‘to tread repeatedly’,
resbalarse ‘to slide’ (which seem to occur while the Figure is walking or running);
(e) English bound (defined as a way of jumping) and slog (defined as a slow and
effortful way of walking) were not rated as good instances of either ‘Walk’, ‘Run’ or
‘Jump’.
As a secondary aim, we also posed the question of whether one question type
works better than the other when categorising verbs. Following Cruse (1989, 2004)
and Miller & Fellbaum (1991), we were inclined to predict that the way-of question
would work better (i.e., it would get higher ratings) than the kind-of question as
troponymy is the most frequent semantic relation among verbs. However, our results
confirmed our prediction only for Spanish. On average, Spanish participants gave
higher ratings for the way-of question than for the kind-of question, whereas English
participants gave higher ratings for the kind-of question. But, if we look at Figure
6.4, it can be observed that verbs from both languages got similar ratings for the
way-of question, but differed significantly in the rating when the kind-of question
was used: Spanish ratings for kind-of were much lower than those for the way-of
question, while English ratings for kind-of were somewhat higher than those for
way-of. One plausible explanation for why the two languages differed dramatically
on the kind-of question might be the wording of the kind-of question in Spanish. One
of our Spanish participants remarked that the question ¿Es X un tipo de Y? sounded
quite odd to her. Thus, the wording of the kind-of question might have been
responsible for Spanish participants favouring the way-of question instead.
To conclude, this investigation provides further empirical evidence for the
findings from our semantic analysis of English and Spanish motion verb lexicons:
despite the fact that English has many more manner-of-motion verbs, both languages
263
exhibit a greater variety of walking verbs over running and jumping verbs.
Furthermore, this study has shed light on the semantic nature of human locomotion
verbs in various ways: by clarifying the motor pattern that a given verb denotes or
implies, and by suggesting that motor-pattern category boundaries are not always
clear, some motion verbs have emerged as mixed motor pattern verbs.
6.5. Conclusions
This chapter has presented three experimental studies on human locomotion verbs in
English and in Spanish. As argued in the Introduction, the semantic analysis carried
out in Chapter 5 does not represent speakers’ mental representations of the motion
verbs. However, this analysis set the much-needed solid foundations to begin
experimental research into the domain of motion.
The first study (the Definition and Feature Listing Task) offers the first
insights into native speakers’ representations of some basic motion verbs, namely,
move and moverse, walk and andar, run and correr, and jump and saltar. Generally
speaking, move and moverse were defined as motion verbs which denote both
translational and self-contained motion; walk and andar as the most basic human
motor pattern to change one’s location; run and correr as translational motion verbs
characterised by a fast way of moving by using one’s legs; and, jump and saltar as
motion verbs defined by a Figure’s pushing off the ground.
The second study (the Free Verb Listing Task) provides the first empirical
evidence for some observations which resulted from our semantic analysis.
Specifically it was found that English and Spanish organise their human locomotion
verb lexicons in similar ways, that is, both languages possess a larger number of
walking verbs over running and jumping verbs, as shown by the greater number of
manner verbs which were listed for walk and andar.
In the third study (the Rating Task), further empirical evidence for these
findings is provided. In addition, this study has elucidated the specific motor pattern
which is denoted or implied by each English and Spanish human locomotion verb,
264
and has suggested, for the first time in this area of research, that some motion verbs
might be considered by language users as mixed motor pattern verbs.
On the whole, our findings are explained by the fact that walking is the
default way of moving for humans; it is a more basic daily activity than jumping or
running. Nowadays, people might run to catch the bus or metro, or jump over an
obstacle, but they most often walk from one place to another. Therefore, as also
stated in Chapter 5, it could be hypothesised that the world’s languages are more
likely to posses a more extensive manner verb lexicon for walking activities than for
running or jumping activities. Moreover, this claim might be also extended beyond
manner verbs to other linguistic units which can also convey manner-of-motion
information; for example, ideophones or sound symbolic expressions such as those
examined by Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2006a).
To conclude, this chapter represents our first attempts to explore the English
and the Spanish motion verb lexicons from a psycholinguistic perspective. A
dissertation would not be enough either to uncover the semantics of all the motion
verbs included in our corpus or to answer all the questions that emerged from the
semantic analysis. The empirical research reported here, however, has satisfactorily
dealt with an important subdomain of motion, that of human locomotion. It has
provided interesting insights into how English and Spanish organise their lexicons
and into the complex semantic nature of human locomotion verbs.
265
CHAPTER 7
CONCLUSIONS
7.1. Summary of the main points
7.2. Possible directions for future research
7.3. Applications
CHAPTER 7. CONCLUSIONS
7.1. Summary of the main points
The work described in this dissertation has been primarily concerned with the
semantics of English and Spanish motion verbs from a contrastive point of view,
bearing on Talmy’s theory of lexicalisation patterns for the domain of motion
(Chapter 2). Talmy was one of the pioneers of the cognitive linguistics enterprise,
which was born as reaction against formal approaches to language.
Talmy’s seminal work has engendered a great deal of research and debate in
the literature on motion event descriptions over the last two decades (Chapter 3).
Linguistic research on the expression of motion has documented habitual ways of
speaking and writing about motion which have served as the foundation for further
investigations of how children acquire these language-specific semantic patterns, on
the effects of these patterns in language processing, and on whether the effects have
an influence on non-linguistic cognition. Despite this bulk of research, research on
motion events has frequently overlooked the fact that motion verbs might also
encode other sorts of semantic information in their verb roots apart from Path of
motion and Manner of motion, and that other minor lexicalisation patterns might
occur as well. Furthermore, more often than not, scholars have neglected the study of
path verbs in favour of the study of manner verbs, as the expression of Manner in
verbs has been so far the most interesting diverging point between satellite- and verbframed languages. Finally, hardly any work has carried out an in-depth analysis of
the semantics of motion verb lexicons of verb- and satellite-framed languages apart
from those motion verbs which were found in novels or were elicited orally (e.g.,
Jovanovic & Martinovic-Zic, 2005; Özçalişkan, 2004; Slobin, 2005).
Research on motion verbs from different theoretical backgrounds (Chapter 4,
Sections 4.2, 4.3. and 4.4) has provided valuable insights into the syntactic and
semantic nature of motion verbs. The general tendency has been to separate path
verbs from manner verbs in these classifications. Path verbs have been often divided
into classes in terms of the trajectories they describe or in terms of whether or not
they describe the achievement of an endpoint. Manner verbs have been grouped into
two classes, namely, translational motion verbs and self-contained motion verbs,
though much more granular classifications have been proposed as well.
267
This dissertation was intended to contribute to crosslinguistic research on
motion events by examining a substantial part of the motion verb lexicons in English
and Spanish. Special attention has been given to the sorts of conflations which could
be found in these motion verbs in addition to the path notions and the fine-grained
manner information conveyed by motion verbs in these two languages. In this
dissertation, we have adopted an approach to the semantics of motion verbs, i.e.,
decompositional analysis, which has allowed uncovering both crosslinguistic
differences and similarities between the two languages. This framework starts from
the general components for a motion event identified by Talmy, but incorporates a
list of types of path and a list of manner parameters which permits a much more
granular analysis of the semantics of motion verbs. Additionally, this dissertation sets
off to explore human locomotion verbs using empirical methods (Chapter 6):
incorporating definition and feature listing, free verb listing, and rating tasks. These
three studies have offered interesting insights into how English and Spanish organise
their lexicons and into the complex semantics of human locomotion verbs; moreover,
it has provided empirical support for some of the findings from the linguistic analysis
and has suggested that some motion verbs might be considered as a combination of
more than one motor pattern.
Comparison between the two languages has led to the identification of some
tendencies or similarities: (a) conflation of Motion plus one additional semantic
component, either Manner or Path, is the most characteristic lexicalisation pattern of
both motion verb lexicons; (b) both languages have path verbs which express at least
13 different types of path; among them, the most frequently lexicalised types of path
are ‘Away from G’, ‘Up/Onto G – Upwards’, ‘To/towards G’ and ‘Down from/to G
– Downwards’, whereas the least frequent is ‘Out of G’; and (c) both languages
possess many more walking verbs than running and jumping verbs. These tendencies
suggest that there are important similarities in how English and Spanish, and
probably other verb- and satellite-framed languages, lexicalise the domain of motion
in their verb roots. In addition, crosslinguistic differences have also been noted: (a)
English manner-of-motion verbs outnumber those of Spanish, as previous research
has also suggested, and tend to exploit some manner parameters much more often
than Spanish manner verbs (e.g., manner information about the mental and physical
268
state of the Figure and details about the way the Figure moves its legs while walking,
motion using vehicles and motion while dancing), and (b) Spanish path verbs exceed
in number English path verbs, although both languages are able to express similar
types of path.
7.2. Possible directions for future research
In the future, we intend to go on with our examination of the semantics of motion
verbs using experimental methods. The semantic analysis carried out in Chapter 5
has raised the question of whether motion verbs mean what dictionaries say they do.
In other words, the semantic representations for the English and the Spanish motion
verbs that have emerged as a result of our analysis call for psycholinguistic
validitation
Moreover, we have come across some conflicting cases and some problems
which need to be addressed in future research. First, the group of verbs which encode
Motion + Path + Manner is one of the most interesting for further research. We have
argued that it is not clear for many verbs (e.g., dive, plummet, plunge, fugarse ‘to
flee’) whether they encode both Path and Manner (besides the fact of Motion) or
whether they only encode Manner, and Path is just implied (i.e., these verbs typically
occur with certain trajectories). Naming and typicality judgement tasks might help to
unveil the semantic nature of this set of verbs. For example, would an event be
labelled by dive or judged as typical of diving if (a) the Figure does not move in a
rapid, highly energetic way? or (b) if the Figure does not follow a downwards path?
Second, another conflictive group of verbs which could be explored by using the
same methods is hound, pursue and shadow; these verbs might denote some manner
information besides Path or trajectory of motion. These verbs have been coded as
path verbs (i.e., ‘After G’ type of path), but hound seems to emphasise the Figure’s
relentless pursuit of a second Figure, pursue seems to often imply that the chaser
intends to capture or kill a second Figure and shadow appear to imply secretive
motion. Third, when exploring English vehicle verbs it was noted that dictionaries do
not always agree on whether these verbs also allow agentive uses, except for the
269
following two groups of vehicle verbs: (a) bus, ferry, parachute, ship, shuttle and
truck, which seem to allow agentive use, and (b) bobsleigh, bobsled, cab, dogsled,
gondola/e, jeep, kayak, moped, motorcycle/bike, rickshaw, rollerblade, skate,
skateboard, ski and yacht, which only seem to denote that the Figure uses these
vehicles or instruments as his/her means of locomotion. Further research is needed to
test the hypothesis that large vehicles (i.e., the former group) might allow both
agentive and self-agentive motion, as they can transport people, goods, etc, whereas
small vehicles (i.e., the latter group) might just be used for Figures as means of their
own locomotion. Finally, it has been noted that the boundary between self-contained
and translational motion is fuzzy, especially for some manner categories such as
‘Unsteady Motion’. It might be that (a) a verb inherently encodes a specific type of
motion or that (b) that meaning derives from being immersed in a specific syntactic
frame such as the English translational motion frame (i.e., manner verb + path
satellites).
Another line of research may be needed to shed light on the semantic weight
of the manner parameters which constitute a verb’s meaning. When grouping motion
verbs into manner categories, the question of whether some manner features are more
important than others for defining a verb or whether all manner categories are on
equal footing was posed. By way of illustration, roar, whiz and zoom encode
information about the rate of motion and about the noise that results from the motion.
Thus, are events designated by these verbs better categorised as (a) noisy activities,
(b) fast speed activities, or (c) as both?
Last, it would be of value for crosslinguistic research to test whether the
tendencies described above for English and Spanish apply to other verb- and
satellite-framed languages. Specifically, do languages (a) have a preference for
lexicalising some types of paths over others and (b) have a larger number of verbs
depicting different ways in which the Figure walks than verbs denoting different
ways of running and jumping?
270
7.3. Applications
This dissertation may have three main distinct applications: (1) for research in this
field, (2) for language teaching and (3) for translation.
First, research on Motion may be benefited in a number of ways. The
approach presented in this dissertation could be extended to the study of the motion
verb lexicons of other verb- and satellite-framed languages as well as to the study of
other linguistic units which can also express path and/or manner information, such as
satellites, verb particles, and sound symbolic expressions. Furthermore, this field of
research would benefit from the better understanding of the semantics of English and
Spanish motion verbs and from the general tendencies observed across the two
languages provided by this dissertation. Many psycholinguistic studies on motion,
including those related to linguistic relativity, start from linguistic data that have not
always been validated. Studies like the present one provide a more firm foundation
for further psycholinguistic research.
Second, the semantic representations of motion verbs proposed in this
dissertation may have useful applications for teaching English as a second language,
in particular, for teaching English to speakers of verb-framed languages. Students of
English find it very difficult to learn and master the vast amount of English mannerof-motion verbs. If manner verbs are presented to students in categories and then
explored in terms of the additional manner information they encode, it will be easier
for them to understand their semantics.
Finally, this dissertation may benefit the field of translation. The complex
semantic nature of a vast number of English and Spanish motion verbs has been
uncovered and compared. Based on this comparison, translators might either choose
the most semantically equivalent verb if the context of the utterance allows its use, or
they might render the motion verb by other linguistic means in order to be as faithful
to the original as possible while sounding natural in the target language.
271
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DICTIONARIES
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, CD-Rom version 1.1. Cambridge
University Press. 2003.
Cambridge Klett Compact, CD-Rom version 1.0b. Cambridge University Press.
2002.
Diccionario de uso del Español. María Moliner, CD-Rom version 2.0, Gredos. 2001
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Longman Language Activator. Pearson Education. 2002.
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Roget’s thesaurus of English words and phrases, online version.
The Free Dictionary by Farlex, online version.
294
APPENDIX 1
MOTION VERBS IN ENGLISH
APPENDIX 1. MOTION VERBS IN ENGLISH
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
Semantic
components
#
Transl
Path
accelerate
Transl
Manner
1
accompany
Transl
Figure + COMOTION
2
advance
Transl
Path
1
1
Manner Details
away from
G
1
(departure,
source)
abandon
AM
Path
Details
Rate- increase
forwards
Dictionary Definition (CALD 1, The
Free Dictionary, MW, LLA)
From Anglo-French abanduner, from
(mettre) a bandun to hand over, put in
someone's control. [transitive verb] to
leave a place, thing or person forever.
TFD: To give up by leaving or ceasing
to operate or inhabit, especially as a
result of danger or other impending
threat. MW: to withdraw from often in
the face of danger or encroachment.
[intransitive verb](MOVE FASTER)
When a vehicle or its driver
accelerates, the speed of the vehicle
increases. If a person or object
accelerates, it goes faster. TFD:
[intransitive verb+ To move or act
faster. [transitive verb] To increase the
speed of. MW: to cause to move
faster. to move faster : gain speed.
[transitive verb] to go with someone.
To show someone how to get to
somewhere. TFD: To be or go with as
a companion. MW: [intransitive and
transitive verb] to perform an
accompaniment to or for.
Middle English advauncen, from
Anglo-French avancer, from Vulgar
Latin *abantiare, from Late Latin
abante in front, from Latin ab- + ante .
[intransitive and transitive verb] to go
or move something forward. TFD:To
go or move forward or onward. To
cause to move forward. MW: to bring
or move forward. to move forward.
Dictionary Definition (OED)
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[transitive verb] To forsake, leave, or
desert (a place, person, or cause); to
leave without one's presence, help, or
support.
[transitive verb] To quicken, or add to
the speed of (a motion or process).
[transitive verb] To go in company with,
to go along with; to convoy; to escort
(for safety), to attend (as a retinue).
[intransitive and transitive verb] To
move forward in place.
The first definition provided for each verb was taken from Cambridge Advanced Learners’ Dictionary (CALD).
296
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
[intransitive verb] to land on
something. TFD: To get down, as
from a vehicle; dismount. MW: to
come down from something (as a
vehicle).
Middle English approchen, from
Anglo-French aprocher, from Late
Latin appropiare, from Latin ad- +
prope near; akin to Latin pro before .
[intransitive and transitive verb] to
closer to G
come near or nearer to something or
someone in space, time, quality or
amount. TFD: To come near or nearer,
as in space or time. To come or go
near or nearer to. MW: to draw nearer.
to draw closer to.
[intransitive verb] to walk in a slow
and relaxed way. TFD: [intransitive
verb] To walk slowly or leisurely;
stroll. To move along at an easy gait
mp-walk; Rate- by using both legs on one side
alternately with both on the other.
slow; State of
Figure (relaxed) Used of a horse. MW: o go at or as if
at an amble. Saunter. LLA: To walk in
a slow and relaxed way, especially
when you are going a short distance,
or not going anywhere in particular.
[intransitive verb] (GET UP). TFD: To
Posture (vertical- get up, as from a sitting or prone
upwards)
position; rise. To move upward;
ascend.MW: To get up.
Earthbased
TFD: [intransitive verb] To move
upward; ascend. MW: rise, ascend.
orientation:
upwards
alight
Transl
Path
down onto
1 G (arrival,
endpoint)
approach
Transl
Path
1
amble
Transl
Manner
1
arise1
Self-c
Manner
1
arise2
Transl
Path
1
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] Referring chiefly to
the result: To land. To get down from a
horse or conveyance; to dismount or
descend for the time; to finish one's ride,
stop.
[intransitive verb] To come nearer
(relatively), or draw near (absolutely), in
space. [transitive verb] To come near to.
[intransitive verb] Of a horse, mule, etc.:
To move by lifting the two feet on one
side together, alternately with the two
feet on the other; hence, to move at a
smooth or easy pace. Of a person: To
ride an ambling horse, to ride at an easy
pace. Hence, To move in a way
suggesting the motion or pace of an
ambling horse.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To get up from
sitting, lying, repose.
[intransitive verb] To ascend, go or
come higher.
297
English Motion
verb
arrive
ascend
back
Motion AM
Transl
Path
Transl
Transl
backpack
Transl
balloon
Transl
Semantic
components
Path
AM
AM?
Path
to/towards
1 G (arrival,
endpoint)
from Anglo-French ariver, from
Vulgar Latin arripare to come to
shore, from Latin ad- + ripa shore.
[intransitive verb] to reach a place,
especially at the end of a journey.
TFD:To reach a destination. MW: to
reach a destination.
[intransitive verb] To come to shore or
into port; to land.To come to, land at,
reach (a shore, port, etc.). To come to
the end of a journey, to a destination, or
to some definite place; to come upon the
scene, make one's appearance.
Earthbased
orientation:
upwards
Latin ascendere, from ad- + scandere
to climb [intransitive and transitive
verb] to move up or climb something.
TFD:To go or move upward; rise.To
move upward upon or along; climb.
MW: to move upward
[intransitive verb] (occas. emphasized
by a redundant up) To go or come up,
originally by a gradual motion, to a
relatively higher position. Of voluntary
agents: To climb up, travel up, walk up;
to soar, mount. Of inanimate things: To
rise, be raised, move to a higher level.
#
1
Path
Details
1 backwards
Manner
1
Manner
1
Manner Details
(cause to) move backwards. TFD: To
cause to move backward or in a
reverse direction. To move backward.
MW: to move backward. to cause to
go back or in reverse.
[intransitive verb] to travel or camp
while carrying your clothes and other
things that you need in a backpack;
Travelling with TFD: [intransitive verb] To hike while
one's belongings carrying a backpack. MW: to carry
(food or equipment) on the back
especially in hiking. to hike with a
backpack.
TFD: [intransitive verb] To ascend or
Vehicle /
ride in a balloon. MW: [intransitive
Instrument
verb] to ascend or travel in or as if in a
balloon.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] (for refl.) To move,
go,
come
back.
[transitive verb] To cause to move back,
put back.
A pack carried on the back; spec. one
consisting of a folded parachute.
[intransitive verb], to carry a pack on the
back: used esp. of hiking, camping, etc.
Also [transitive verb]
[intransitive verb] To ascend in a
balloon. [transitive verb] To carry up in,
or as in, a balloon.
298
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
bend
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Posture (Bend)
bicycle; bike
Transl
AM?
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
blow
boat
Transl
Transl
AM
AM
CAUSE
Manner
(cause to) curve. TFD:To cause to
assume a curved or angular shape. To
assume a curved, crooked, or angular
form or direction. To incline the body;
stoop. MW: to curve out of a straight
line or position; specifically : to
incline the body in token of
submission. to turn or force from
straight or even to curved or angular.
[intransitive verb and transitive verb]
INFORMAL to go somewhere by
bicycle. To use a motorcycle to
deliver something to someone. TFD:
[intransitive verb] To ride or travel on
a bicycle. MW: [intransitive verb]
[intransitive verb] To assume or receive
a curved form, or a shape in which one
part is inclined at an angle to the other.
To bring into the shape or direction of a
bent bow. [transitive verb] To put or
bring into the shape of a bow; to arch.
[intransitive verb] To ride on a bicycle.
1
move and make currents of air, or to
be moved or make something move on
a current of air. TFD: [intransitive
verb] To be in a state of motion. Used
of the air or of wind.To move along or
be carried by or as if by the wind.
[transitive verb] To cause to move by
means of a current of air. MW: (of
air)to be in motion. to move or be
carried by or as if by wind.
[intransitive verb] The proper verb
naming the motion or action of the wind,
or of an aerial current. [transitive verb]
To drive or carry (things) by means of a
current of air
1
AS NOUN: a small vehicle for
travelling on water. TFD: [intransitive
and transitive verb] To travel by boat /
to transport by boat. MW: [transitive
verb] to place in or bring into a boat.
[intransitive verb] to go by boat.
[intransitive verb] To go in a boat, to
row; to conduct a freight-boat (U.S.).
[transitive verb] To place in a boat; to
carry in a boat.
Vehicle /
Instrument
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
299
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
bob
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Iterative Motion
(up-down)
bobsleigh (UK);
bobsled (US)
Transl
NO
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
bolt
Transl
Manner
1
Rate-fast
boogie
Self-c
Manner
1
Dance
bop
Self-c
Manner
1
Dance
bounce
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Bounce
[intransitive verb] to move up and
down quickly and gently especially on
the surface of water. TFD: [transitive
and intransitive verb]To cause to
move up and down. To move up and
down. MW: [transitive and intransitive
verb] to move up and down in a short
quick movement. to move up and
down briefly or repeatedly.
AS NOUN: a small vehicle with long
metal blades under it, built for racing
down ice-covered tracks. TFD:
[intransitive verb] To ride or race in or
as if in a bobsled. MW: NO FOUND
AS MOTION VERB
[intransitive verb] to move very fast,
especially as a result of being
frightened. TFD: To move or spring
suddenly. MW: to move suddenly or
nervously. to move or proceed rapidly.
to dart off or away.
[intransitive verb] To move up and
down like a buoyant body in water, or an
elastic body on land; hence, to dance; to
move to and fro with a similar motion,
esp. said of hanging things rebounding
from objects lightly struck by them. To
move up or down with a bob or slight
jerk. [transitive verb] To move (a thing)
up or down with a bob or slight jerk.
AS NOUN: orig. U.S. A sled or sleigh,
made of two short sleds or sleighs
coupled together; used in drawing logs
from the forest to a river or public road,
and for various other purposes. NO
FOUND AS MOTION VERB
[intransitive verb] To spring, move
suddenly, with its causal.To move or
come as with a spring or sudden bound,
to dart. To dart off or away, make off
with himself, take flight, escape; to rush
suddenly off or away.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
mp-run
[intransitive verb] dance to pop music.
[intransitive verb] To dance to boogieTFD: To dance to rock music. MW:
woogie music.
NO FOUND AS MOTION VERB.
[intransitive verb] dance to pop music.
TFD: NO FOUND. MW: to dance or
shuffle along to or as if to bop music.
(cause to) move up or away after
hitting a surface. To move in an
energetic and enthusiastic manner.
TFD: To rebound after having struck
an object or a surface. MW: to
rebound or reflect after striking a
surface (as the ground).
[intransitive verb] To play bop music, or
in the style of this. To dance to pop
music.
[intransitive verb] To move with a
sudden bound. To bound like a ball; to
throw oneself about: esp. said of an
elastic or bounding movement by a
heavy or bulky body. [transitive verb]
To cause to rebound.
mp-jump
300
English Motion
verb
bound
bow
bowl
bus
Motion AM
Transl
Self-c
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
AM
AM
AM
Manner
Manner
Manner
#
1
1
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] to move quickly
with large jumping movements. LLA:
To move quickly forward with long
high jumps. TFD: To leap forward or
upward; spring. To progress by
forward leaps or springs. To bounce;
rebound. MW: to move by leaping .
bend your head or body forward,
especially as a way of showing
someone respect or expressing. TFD:
To bend or curve downward; stoop.
Posture (Bend, To bend (the head, knee, or body) to
Twist, Curve) express greeting, consent, courtesy,
acknowledgment, submission, or
veneration. MW: to bend the head,
body, or knee in reverence,
submission, or shame. to cause to
incline.
[intransitive and transitive verb] to roll
a ball along a smooth grass or artificial
surface during a game. TFD: roll (a
Revolve, Rotate, ball).move along on or as if on wheels
Spin
or a wheeled vehicle. MW: to roll a
ball in bowling. to roll (a ball) in
bowling. to travel smoothly and
rapidly (as in a wheeled vehicle).
AS NOUN: a large vehicle in which
people are driven from one place to
another. [transitive verb] to take
people
somewhere
by
bus.
Vehicle /
TFD:[intransitive and transitive verb]
Instrument
to transport in a bus; to travel in a bus.
MW: [intransitive verb] to travel by
bus. to work as a busboy. [transitive
verb] to transport by bus.
mp-jump;
Characteristic
use of lower
body (Stepslarge jumps)
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To spring upwards,
No
leap; to advance with leaps or springs:
significant
said both of inanimate and animate
difference
objects.
Intransitive uses. To bend the body,
knee, or head, in token of reverence,
respect, or submission; to make
obeisance. [transitive verb] To cause (a
thing) to bend; to force or bring into a
curved or angular shape; to inflect,
curve, crook. arch. and dial.
[intransitive verb] To play at bowls; to
trundle or roll a bowl, etc. along the
ground. [transitive verb] To cause to
roll, to send with a rolling or revolving
motion (a bowl, a hoop, etc.).
[intransitive verb] To travel by bus; also
in phr. to bus it. colloq. [transitive verb]
To transport (people) by bus from one
place to aNOther, esp. in order to
encourage or achieve racial integration.
Hence bus(s)ed ppl. a. U.S.
301
English Motion
verb
cab
Motion AM
Transl
cancan
Self-c
canoe
Transl
NO
AM
Semantic
components
Manner
#
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
Vehicle /
Instrument
Manner
1
Dance
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
canter1
Transl
Manner
1
canter2
Transl
Manner
1
Rate-fast
AS NOUN: a car with a driver whom
you pay to take you somewhere. TFD:
ride or travel in a taxicab; to ride a
taxicab. MW: [intransitive verb] to
travel in a cab.
AS NOUN: a fast dance, originally
performed in France in the 19th
century, in which a row of women on
a stage kick their legs high and lift
their skirts. NO FOUND AS
MOTION VERB
AS NOUN: a small light narrow boat,
pointed at both ends and moved using
a paddle (= a short pole with a flat
blade). [intransitive and transitive
verb] to travel in a canoe. TFD:
[transitive verb] To carry or send by
canoe. [intransitive verb] to travel in
or propel a canoe. MW: [transitive
verb] to transport in a canoe; also : to
travel by canoe down (a river).
[intransitive verb] to go or travel in a
canoe.
Etymology: short for obsolete
canterbury, noun (canter), from
Canterbury, England; from the
supposed gait of pilgrims riding to
Canterbury. [intransitive verb] If a
horse canters, it moves at a quite fast
but easy and comfortable speed. TFD:
To go or move at a canter. MW:
[intransitive verb] to move at or as if
at a canter: lope.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] (Also to cab it). To
travel or go in a cab. To drive a cab.
AS NOUN: A kind of dance made
popular at the public balls in Paris, with
extravagant and indecent gestures. NO
[intransitive verb] To paddle or propel a
canoe; to move as in a canoe.
[intransitive verb] Of a horse, etc.: To
move in a moderate gallop, raising the
two fore-feet nearly at the same time
with a leap or spring. Of the rider. To
run or move as in a canter; to move
nimbly or briskly. [transitive verb] To
make (a horse) go at a canter, to ride at a
canter.
mp-run
Vehicle /
TFD: To ride a horse at a canter. MW:
Instrument (on a [intransitive verb] to ride a horse at a [intransitive verb] Of the rider.
horse); Rate-fast canter
302
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
caper
Transl
Manner
1
Playful Motion
capriole
Self-c
Manner
1
mp-jump
capsize
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Upside Down
caravan
Transl
AM?
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
Etymology: probably by shortening &
alteration from capriole. [intransitive
verb] to run and jump about in an
energetic, happy way. TFD: (as noun)
A playful leap or hop. To leap or frisk
about; frolic. MW: [intransitive verb]
to leap or prance about in a playful
manner.
[intransitive verb] to perform a
capriole, of horses in dressage. TFD:
To perform a capriole (=An upward
leap made by a trained horse without
going forward and with a backward
kick of the hind legs at the height of
the leap. A playful leap or jump; a
caper.). MW: AS NOUN: a playful
leap. a vertical leap with a backward
kick of the hind legs at the height of
the leap. [intransitive verb]
Etymology: perhaps from Spanish
capuzar or Catalan cabussar to thrust
(the head) underwater. [intransitive
and transitive verb] to (cause a boat or
ship to) turn upside down accidentally
while on water. TFD: To overturn or
cause to overturn. MW: to cause to
overturn. To turn over.
AS NOUN: UK (US trailer) a wheeled
vehicle for living or travelling in,
especially for holidays, which contains
beds and cooking equipment and can
be pulled by a car. TFD: [intransitive
verb] to travel in a caravan. MW:
[intransitive verb] to travel in a
caravan.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
Low
[intransitive verb] To dance or leap in a
ratings.
frolicsome manner, to skip for
NO
merriment; to prance as a horse. Also
significant
with about, away.
difference
[intransitive verb] To leap, skip, caper.
Also said of horses (and their riders)
[transitive verb] To upset, overturn (esp.
on the water). [intransitive verb] (for
refl.) To be upset or overturned.
[intransitive verb] To travel or live in a
caravan. [transitive verb] To convey by
caravan. rare.
303
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
careen 1
Self-c
careen2
Transl
career
cavort
Transl
Transl
AM
Semantic
components
#
Manner
1
Manner
1
Manner
Manner
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
TFD: [transitive verb] To cause (a
ship) to lean to one side; tilt.
[intransitive verb] To lean to one side,
as a ship sailing in the wind.To turn a
ship on its side for cleaning, caulking,
Posture (to one or repairing. MW: [transitive verb] to
side)
put (a ship or boat) on a beach
especially in order to clean, caulk, or
repair the hull. to cause to heel over.
[intransitive verb] to careen a boat. to
undergo this process. to heel over. to
sway from side to side.
[intransitive verb] to go forward
Rate-fast;
quickly while moving from side to
Uncontrolled
side. TFD: To rush headlong or
Motion/Unsteady carelessly; career. MW: career. to go
Motion?
at top speed especially in a headlong
manner.
[intransitive verb] (especially of a
vehicle)
to
move
fast
and
Rate-fast;
uncontrollably. TFD: move headlong
Uncontrolled
at high speed. MW: [intransitive verb]
Motion?
to go at top speed especially in a
headlong manner.
[intransitive verb] to jump or move
around in a playful way, sometimes
noisily, and often in a sexual way.
Playful Motion TFD: To bound or prance about in a
sprightly manner; caper. MW:
[intransitive verb] to leap or dance
about in a lively manner.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] [transitive verb] To
turn (a ship) over on one side for
cleaning, caulking, or repairing; to
clean, caulk, etc. (a ship so turned over).
[intransitive verb] ‘A ship is said to
careen when she inclines to one side, or
lies over when sailing on a wind’.
[intransitive verb] [Influenced by
CAREER] To rush headlong, to hurtle,
esp. with an unsteady motion. Chiefly
U.S.
[intransitive verb] To gallop, run or
move at full speed. [transitive verb] To
make (a horse) career. To move swiftly
over.
Low
orig. U.S. [intransitive verb] To curvet, ratings.
prance, caper about, frisk, bound: said of
NO
significant
a horse, or rider, and hence transf.
difference
304
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
charge
Transl
chariot
Transl
chase
Transl
AM
Semantic
components
#
Path + Manner
2
Manner
1
Path + Manner
2
circle
Transl
Manner
1
circuit
Transl
(Motion) +
Ground
1
Path
Details
to/towards
G
Manner Details
Rate-fast;
Violent Motion
Vehicle /
Instrument
after G
Rate-fast
Path-shape
(circular)
move forward quickly and violently,
especially towards something which
has caused difficulty or annoyance.
LLA: To run quickly and with a lot of
energy, especially when you are going
to attack someone or something. TFD:
To rush forward in or as if in a violent
attack. MW: to rush forward in or as if
in assault.
AS NOUN: a two-wheeled vehicle
that was used in ancient times for
racing and fighting and was pulled by
a horse. TFD: [intransitive and
transitive verb] To convey or ride in a
chariot. MW: [intransitive verb] to
drive or ride in or as if in a chariot.
[transitive verb] to carry in or as if in a
chariot.
hurry after someone or something in
order to catch them. TFD: To follow
rapidly in order to catch or overtake;
pursue. To go or follow in pursuit.
MW: to follow rapidly. to chase an
animal, person, or thing.
move in a circle, often around
something. TFD: [transitive verb] To
move in a circle around. [intransitive
verb] To move in a circle. MW: to
move in or as if in a circle
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To rush against or
upon, with all one's force, in a hostile
way; to spur one's horse against at full
gallop; to bear down upon, make a
violent onset on, attack or assail with
impetuosity. Esp. in military use; also
said of a powerful animal rushing at any
opponent, of players at football, etc.
mp-run
[transitive verb] To carry or convey in a
chariot: [intransitive verb] To drive or
ride in a chariot.
[intransitive verb] To pursue with a view
to catching. To run with speed; to hurry
or rush along. [transitive verb] To
pursue for prey or sport; to hunt.
[transitive verb] To pursue or run after
in play.
mp-run
[transitive verb] To make the circuit of,
move
round.
[intransitive verb] To move in a circle
(around, about, etc.).
[transitive verb] To go, pass, move, or
[intransitive and transitive verb] TFD: travel round; to make the circuit of,
make a circuit. MW: to make a circuit. compass about. [intransitive verb] To go
or move in a circuit.
305
English Motion
verb
circulate
clamber
climb
clip
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
Transl
AM
Semantic
components
(Motion) +
Ground
Manner
Path + Manner
Manner
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
1
Forced Motion
(Energy-low);
Use of one's
hands and legs
1
2
1
up/onto G
Use of one's
hands and legs
Rate-fast
move around or through something, or
to make something move around or
through something. TFD: cause to
move in a circuit or system; move in
circles. MW: to move in a circle,
circuit, or orbit; especially, to follow
a course that returns to the starting
point.
[intransitive verb] to climb up, across
or into somewhere with difficulty,
using the hands and the feet. TFD: To
climb with difficulty, especially on all
fours; scramble. MW: to climb
awkwardly (as by scrambling).
[intransitive and transitive verb] to use
your legs, or your legs and hands, to
go up or onto the top of something.
TFD: To move oneself upward,
especially by using the hands and
feet.To rise slowly, steadily, or
effortfully; ascend.To move upward
on or mount, especially by using the
hands and feet or the feet alone;
ascend. To move in a specified
direction by using the hands and feet.
MW: to go upward or raise oneself
especially by grasping or clutching
with the hands. to go about or down
usually by grasping or holding with
the hands.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To move round, turn
round, revolve, formerly round an axis
(obs.), or in an orbit (arch.); Now round
a circuit, circuitous course, system of
pipes, or the like. [transitive verb] To go
or run round; to encircle, encompass,
surround.
[intransitive verb] To climb by catching
hold with hands and feet; to creep or
crawl up (or down); to climb with
difficulty and effort.
[intransitive verb] To raise oneself by
grasping or clinging, or by the aid of
hands and feet; ‘to mount by means of
some hold or footing’ (J.); to creep up;
to ascend, come, or go up, a
perpendicular or steep place. Often with
up.
to climb down: to descend by the same
means
[intransitive verb] To move the wings
[intransitive verb] TFD: to move rapidly; to fly rapidly. [intransitive verb]
rapidly. MW: NO FOUND
(colloq.) To move or run quickly. Cf.
cut. U.S.
306
English Motion
verb
clump
Motion AM
Transl
coach
Transl
coggle
Self-c
coil
Self-c
Semantic
components
Manner
AM?
AM
#
1
Manner
1
Manner
1
Manner
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] to walk noisily with
slow, heavy steps. LLA: To walk with
slow, heavy, noisy steps, for example
because you are wearing heavy shoes.
TFD: To walk or move so as to make
a heavy dull sound. MW: to walk or
move clumsily and noisily.
AS NOUN: a long motor vehicle with
comfortable seats, used to take groups
Vehicle /
of
people
on
journeys.TFD:
Instrument
transport by or ride in a coach. MW:
[intransitive verb] to go in a coach.
TFD: [intransitive verb] to walk
Unsteady Motion unsteadily; dodder, toddle. To move
unsteadily; wobble. MW: NO FOUND
[intransitive and transitive verb] TFD:
to form concentric rings or spirals; To
wind in concentric rings or spirals.
Revolve, Rotate,
MW: [intransitive verb] to move in a
Spin
circular or spiral course . to form or lie
in a coil. [transitive verb] to wind into
rings or spirals
mp-walk; Noisy
activity;
Characteristic
use of lower
body (Stepsheavy, slow)?
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To walk or tread
heavily and clumsily. [This has
associations with CLUMP, or its Dutch
sources. People clump with klumpen or
wooden shoes.]
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To ride or drive in a
coach or motor coach. [transitive
verb]To convey in, seat in, provide with,
a coach.
[intransitive verb and transitive verb] To
shake from side to side; to be unsteady;
to wabble.
[transitive verb] To twist in or into a
circular, spiral, or winding shape; to
twist or wind round (something).
[intransitive verb] (for refl.) To throw
oneself into a spiral or winding form, to
twist oneself round.
307
English Motion
verb
come
conduct
Motion AM
Semantic
components
Transl
Path
Transl
Figure + COMOTION
#
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
Deixis:
towards G
(speaker)
2
conga
Self-c
Manner
1
convoy
Transl
Figure + COMOTION
2
Dance
[intransitive verb] to move or travel
towards the speaker or with the
speaker. TFD: To advance toward the
speaker or toward a specified place;
approach. MW: to move toward
something.
An elementary intransitive verb of
motion, expressing movement towards
or so as to reach the speaker, or the
person spoken to, or towards a point
where the speaker in thought or
imagination places himself, or (when he
is not himself in question) towards the
person who forms the subject of his
narrative. It is thus often used in
opposition to go, although the latter does
not primarily involve direction, and is
often used without reference thereto.
Come is also used merely of the
accomplishment of the movement,
involved in reaching or becoming
present at any place or point; and
sometimes the entrance upon motion,
involved in issuing from a source, is
alone, or at least chiefly.
[transitive verb] to lead someone to a
particular place. TFD: To act as a
conductor.To lead. MW: to show the
way.
AS NOUN: a Latin American dance in
which a chain of people hold each
other around the waist and follow the
leader around using simple steps and
kicks. [intransitive verb] TFD: to
perform this dance. MW: NO FOUND
[transitive verb] to travel with a
vehicle or group of people to make
certain that they arrive safely. TFD:
[transitive verb] to accompany,
especially for protection; to escort.
MW: to escort for protection.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[transitive verb] To go with, or before,
and show the way to (any one); to lead,
escort, guide.
AS NOUN: A Latin-American dance of
African origin, usu. performed by
several people in single file and
consisting of three steps forward
followed by a kick.
Also as v.
[intransitive verb], to dance the conga.
[transitive verb] To accompany, escort.
To accompany as guide or conductor; to
conduct, guide.
308
English Motion
verb
crash
crawl
creep1
creep2 [crawl]
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
#
CONCURRENT
1
RESULT
Manner
Manner
Manner
1
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
[intransitive and transitive verb] to hit
something, often making a loud noise
or causing damage. TFD: To undergo
sudden damage or destruction on
impact. To move noisily or so as to
cause damage. MW: o fall, land, or hit
with destructive force.
[intransitive verb] to move slowly or
with difficulty, especially (of a person)
Contact
with the body stretched out along the
[between F and ground or on hands and knees. TFD:
G]: Body close To move slowly on the hands and
to ground; Rate- knees or by dragging the body along
slow
the ground; creep. MW: To move
slowly in a prone position without or
as if without the use of limbs.
[intransitive verb] to move slowly,
quietly and carefully, usually in order
to avoid being noticed. TFD:
[intransitive verb] To move stealthily
Furtive Motion;
or cautiously. MW: to go timidly or
mp-walk?
cautiously so as to escape notice.
LLA: To walk quietly and carefully
because you do not want anyone to
notice you.
Contact
[between F and
G]: Body close
to ground
TFD: [intransitive verb] To move with
the body close to the ground, as on
hands and knees. MW: [intransitive
verb] to move along with the body
prone and close to the ground. to move
slowly on hands and knees.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[transitive verb] To break in pieces with
violence and noise; to dash in pieces,
shiver, shatter, smash. [intransitive verb]
To break or fall to pieces with noise, as
when dashed down or violently struck;
to smash, break up.
[intransitive verb] To move slowly in a
prone position, by dragging the body
along close to the ground, as a child
upon its hands and knees, any shortlimbed quadruped or reptile, an insect,
serpent, worm, slug.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To move softly,
cautiously, timorously, or slowly; to
move quietly and stealthily so as to
elude observation; to steal (into, away,
etc.).
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To move with the
body prone and close to the ground, as a
short-legged reptile, an insect, a
quadruped moving stealthily, a human
being on hands and feet, or in a
crouching posture. [Formerly said of
snakes, worms, and other creatures
without limbs, for which crawl is now
more usual, though in some cases either
may be used.]
309
English Motion
verb
cross
crouch
cruise
Motion AM
Transl
Path
Self-c
Manner
Transl
curvet
Self-c
cycle
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
AM
#
1
Path
Details
pass/cross
G
Manner Details
from Latin cruc-, crux [intransitive
and transitive verb] to go across from
one side of something to the other.
TFD: To go or extend across; pass
from one side of to the other. MW: to
move, pass, or extend across
something.
[transitive and intransitive verb] To pass
over a line, boundary, river, channel,
etc.; to pass from one side to the other of
any space.
1
[intransitive verb] to bend your knees
and lower yourself so that you are
Posture (vertical- close to the ground and leaning
downwards;
forward slightly. TFD: To stoop,
Bend)
especially with the knees bent. MW:
to lower the body stance especially by
bending the legs.
1
[intransitive verb] to travel on ships
for pleasure. TFD: To sail or travel
Vehicle /
about,
as
for
pleasure
or
Instrument (ship)
reconnaissance. MW: To sail about
touching at a series of ports.
Manner
1
Manner
1
[intransitive verb] TFD: to leap in a
curvet, to prance; [transitive verb] to
cause to leap in a curvet [i.e., a light
leap by a horse in which both hind
mp-jump
legs leave the ground before the
forelegs
come
down.
MW:
[intransitive verb] To make a curvet;
also : prance, caper.
[intransitive verb] to ride a bicycle.
Vehicle /
TFD: [intransitive verb] To ride a
Instrument (bike, bicycle, motorcycle, or similar
bicycle)
vehicle. MW: [intransitive verb] to
ride a cycle.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To stoop or bend low
with general compression of the body, as
in stooping for shelter, in fear, or in
submission; to cower with the limbs
bent. Formerly often applied to the act
of bowing low in reverence or
deference. Now said also of the
depressed and constrained posture
assumed by a beast in fear or
submission, or in order to make a spring.
[intransitive verb] To sail to and fro over
some part of the sea without making for
a particular port or landing-place, on the
look out for ships, for the protection of
commerce in time of war, for plunder, or
(in modern times) for pleasure.
[transitive verb] To sail to and fro over.
[intransitive verb] Of a horse: To
execute a curvet, leap in a curvet. Said
also of the horseman. [transitive verb]
To cause to curvet.
[intransitive verb]To ride a bicycle or
tricycle, to travel by cycle.
310
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
dance
Self-c
Manner
1
Dance
dart
Transl
Manner
1
Rate-fast
dash
dawdle
decelerate
Transl
Transl
Transl
Manner
Manner
Manner
1
1
1
move the body and feet to music.
TFD:To move rhythmically usually to
music, using prescribed or improvised
steps and gestures. [transitive verb] To
engage in or perform (a dance). to
cause to dance. MW: to engage in or
perform a dance. to cause to dance.
[intransitive verb] to move quickly or
suddenly. TFD:To move suddenly and
rapidly. MW: to move suddenly or
rapidly.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To leap, skip, hop, or
glide with measured steps and
rhythmical movements of the body,
usually to the accompaniment of music,
either by oneself, or with a partner or in
a set. [transitive verb] with the name or
description of a dance or measure as
cognate object.
[intransitive verb] To move like a dart;
to spring or start with a sudden rapid
motion; to shoot.
mp-run
Rate-fast
[intransitive verb] to go somewhere
quickly. TFD: [intransitive verb] To
move with haste; rush. MW: [intransitive verb] to go, run, or rush
[intransitive verb] to move suddenly with sudden impetuosity, or with
or rapidly. LLA: To run very quickly spirited or brilliant action.
for a short distance especially because
you have to do something urgently.
mp-run
Rate-slow
[intransitive verb] to do something or
go somewhere very slowly, taking
[intransitive verb] To idle, waste time; to
more time than is necessary. TFD: To
be sluggish or lazy; to loiter, linger,
move aimlessly or lackadaisically.
dally.
MW: to move lackadaisically (=
lacking life, spirit, or zest : languid).
Rate-decrease
[intransitive verb] to go more slowly;
to reduce speed. TFD: To decrease the [intransitive and transitive verb] To
velocity of. To decrease in velocity. diminish the speed of; to cause to go
MW: to move at decreasing speed. to slower.
reduce the speed of : slow down.
311
English Motion
verb
depart
descend
desert
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
AM
disembark
Trans
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
Path
away from
G
1
(departure,
source)
Path
Earthbased
1
orientation:
downwards
Path
away from
G
1
(departure,
source)
Path + Ground
(ship)
down
from/away
2
from G
(departure,
source)
Manner Details
from Anglo-French departir, from de+ partir to divide, from Latin partire,
from part-, pars part . [intransitive
verb] to go away or leave, especially
on a journey. TFD: To go away; leave.
MW: To go away; leave.
from Anglo-French descendre, from
Latin descendere, from de- + scandere
to climb. [intransitive verb] to go or
come
down.
[intransitive
and
transitive verb] TFD: To move from a
higher to a lower place; come or go
down. MW: to pass from a higher
place or level to a lower one. to pass,
move, or climb down or down along.
French déserter, from Late Latin
desertare, frequentative of Latin
deserere. [intransitive and transitive
verb] to leave someone without help
or in a difficult situation and not come
back. TFD:leave someone who needs
or counts on you; leave in the lurch.
MW: to withdraw from or leave
usually without intent to return.
Middle French desembarquer, from
des- dis- + embarquer to embark.
TFD: [intransitive verb] To go ashore
from a ship. To leave a vehicle or
aircraft. [transitive verb] To take
ashore from a ship. MW: to go ashore
out of a ship.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To go apart or away,
with its derived senses.
[intransitive verb] To move or pass from
a higher to a lower position in space; to
come or go down, fall, sink. (The
general word, including all kinds of
downward motion, vertical or oblique;
the opposite of ascend.)
abandon, forsake, relinquish, give up (a
thing); to depart from (a place or
position).
[intransitive verb] To go on shore from a
ship; to land. [transitive verb] trans. To
put ashore from a ship; to land.
312
English Motion
verb
dive
divert
dodder
dodge1
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Self-c /
Transl
Self-c
Semantic
components
Path + Manner
AM
Path
Manner
Manner
#
Path
Details
2
down into
G
1
Change
Direction
1
1
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] to jump into water,
especially with your head and arms
going in first, or to move down under
the water. LLA: To jump into water.
TFD: To plunge, especially headfirst,
Forced Motion;
into water. To go toward the bottom of
Head first
a body of water; submerge. To fall
head down through the air. MW: to
plunge into water intentionally and
especially headfirst. to come or drop
down precipitously.
from Middle French & Latin; Middle
French divertir, from Latin divertere to
turn in opposite directions. [transitive
verb] to cause something or someone
to change direction. TFD: To turn
aside from a course or direction. MW:
to turn aside : deviate.
[intransitive verb] TFD: to shake or
tremble, as from old age; totter. To
progress in a feeble, unsteady manner.
Unsteady Motion
MW: to tremble or shake from
weakness or age. to progress feebly
and unsteadily.
avoid being hit by something by
moving quickly to one side. TFD:
Posture (to one
[intransitive verb] To move aside or in
side)
a given direction by shifting or
twisting suddenly. MW: an act of
evading by sudden bodily movement.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[Iintransitive verb] To descend or plunge
into or under water or other liquid.
(Usually, unless otherwise stated, to
plunge head-foremost.). To descend or
fall precipitously with increasing
momentum.
[transitive verb] To turn aside (a thing,
as a stream, etc.) from its (proper)
direction or course; to deflect (the
course of something); to turn from one
destination or object to another.
[intransitive verb] To tremble or shake
from frailty. To proceed or move
unsteadily or with tottering gait; to
totter; to potter.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To avoid an encounter
with (a person or thing) by changes of
position, shifts, or doublings; to elude (a
pursuer, etc.) by shifts or sideward
movements.
313
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
dodge2
Transl
dogsled
Transl
dribble
drift
Path
NO
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
AM
CAUSE
#
Path
Details
1 away from
1
1
1
Manner Details
avoid being hit by something by
moving quickly to one side. TFD:
[intransitive verb] To move aside or in
a given direction by shifting or
twisting suddenly. MW: an act of
evading by sudden bodily movement.
AS NOUN: a sledge pulled by dogs.
Vehicle /
TFD: [intransitive verb] travel with a
Instrument
dogsled, to ride (on) a dogsled. MW:
NO FOUND AS MOTION VERB.
[intransitive or transitive verb] (in
football or hockey) to move a ball
along the ground with repeated small
kicks or hits, or (in basketball) to
move a ball by repeatedly hitting it
Motion in sports against the floor with your hand. TFD:
[intransitive verb] To dribble a ball or
puck. [transitive verb] To move (a ball
or puck) by repeated light bounces or
kicks, as in basketball or soccer. MW:
to dribble a ball or puck.
[intransitive verb] to move slowly,
especially as a result of outside forces,
with no control over direction. TFD:
[intransitive verb] To be carried along
by currents of air or water. [transitive
verb] To cause to be carried in a
current. MW: to become driven or
carried along (as by a current of water,
wind, or air). to cause to be driven in a
current. to move or float smoothly and
effortlessly.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To avoid an encounter
with (a person or thing) by changes of
position, shifts, or doublings; to elude (a
pursuer, etc.) by shifts or sideward
movements.
AS NOUN: dog-sled, -sledge, a sledge
drawn by dogs, as in the Arctic regions.
[transitive verb] In Assoc. Football, etc.
To keep (the ball) moving along the
ground in front of and close to one by a mp-walk /
rapid succession of short pushes, instead mp-run
of sending it as far as possible by a
vigorous kick.
[intransitive verb] To move as driven or
borne along by a current; to float or
move along with the stream or wind.
[transitive verb] To drive or carry along,
as by a current of water or air.
314
English Motion
verb
drive
Motion AM
Transl
AM
Semantic
components
Manner
drop
Transl
AM
Path
edge
Transl
AM
Manner
AM
Path + Ground
(ship)
embark
Transl
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
Vehicle /
Instrument
1
Earthbased
1
orientation:
downwards
1
2
Gradual stages
up/onto G
move or travel on land in a motor
vehicle, especially as the person
controlling the vehicle's movement.
TFD: [intransitive verb] To operate a
vehicle, such as a car.To go or be
transported in a vehicle. [transitive
verb] To convey or transport in a
vehicle. MW: To operate a vehicle. to
have oneself carried in a vehicle. to
convey in a vehicle.
[intransitive and transitive verb] to fall
or to allow something to fall. TFD:
To fall from a higher to a lower place
or position. To let fall by releasing
hold of. MW: to fall unexpectedly or
suddenly. To let fall : cause to fall.
move slowly with gradual movements
or in gradual stages, or to make
someone or something move in this
way. TFD: [intransitive verb] To move
gradually or hesitantly. MW: to
advance by short moves. LLA: To
walk slowly and carefully, especially
sideways, along or through a small
space because you do not have enough
room to walk normally.
[intransitive verb] to go onto a ship.
TFD: [transitive verb] To cause to
board a vessel or aircraft. [intransitive
verb] To go aboard a vessel or aircraft,
as at the start of a journey. MW: to go
on board a vehicle for transportation.
to cause to go on board (as a boat or
airplane).
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
guide a vehicle or the animal that draws
it, to act as driver; also, to travel or be
conveyed in a carriage under one's own
direction or at one's disposal. Also
[intransitive verb] (for pass.), of the
vehicle. [transitive verb] To carry or
convey in a vehicle.
[intransitive verb] To fall vertically, like
a single drop, under the simple influence
of gravity; to descend. To have an
abrupt descent in position. [transitive
verb] To let fall
[intransitive verb] To move edgeways;
to advance (esp. obliquely) by repeated
almost imperceptible movements.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To go on board ship;
to take ship. [transitive] To put on board
ship, make to go on board. Of the ship:
To receive on board.
315
English Motion
verb
emigrate
enter
escape
escort
exit
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Path + Ground
(country)
Path
Path
Figure + COMOTION
Path
#
Path
Details
away from
G
2
(departure,
source)
1
into G
away from
G
1
(departure,
source)
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] to leave a country
permanently and go to live in another
one. TFD: To leave one country or
region to settle in another. MW: to
leave one's place of residence or
country to live elsewhere.
Middle English entren, from AngloFrench entrer, from Latin intrare, from
intra within. [intransitive verb] to
come or go into a particular place.
TFD: [intransitive and transitive
verb]To come or go in; make an entry.
MW: to go or come in.
from Anglo-French escaper, eschaper,
from Vulgar Latin *excappare, from
Latin ex- + Late Latin cappa head
covering, cloak. [intransitive and
transitive verb] to get free from
something, or to avoid something.
TFD:To
break
loose
from
confinement; get free MW: to get
away (as by flight).
[intransitive verb] To remove out of a
country for the purpose of settling in
another. [transitive verb] To cause or
assist to emigrate; to send out to settle in
a foreign country.
[intransitive verb] To go or come in.To
go or come into a place, building, room,
etc.; to pass within the boundaries of a
country, region, portion of space,
medium, etc.
[intransitive verb] To gain one's liberty
by flight; to get free from detention or
control, or from an oppressive or
irksome condition. [transitive verb] To
effect one's flight from (prison); to free
oneself from (a person's grasp or
control); to get safely out of (painful or
dangerous conditions).
2
[transitive verb] to go with someone or
a vehicle especially to make certain
that they arrive safely or that they
leave a place. TFD, MW: To
accompany as an escort.
1
Latin, he goes out, from exire to go
out, from ex- + ire to go. [intransitive [intransitive verb] To make one's exit,
and transitive verb] TFD: To go out depart, disappear
of; leave. MW: To go out or away.
out of G
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[transitive verb] To act as escort to. a.
Mil. of armed men; Naut. of a convoy.
b. In wider sense: To accompany for the
purpose of protecting or conducting, or
of showing civility.
316
English Motion
verb
fall
Motion AM
Transl
ferry
Transl
file
Transl
flap
Self-c
Semantic
components
Path
AM
Manner
Manner Details
Earthbased
1
orientation:
downwards
Vehicle /
Instrument
Manner
Manner
AM
#
Path
Details
1
1
Motion in file;
mp-walk?
Shake, Swing,
Vibrate
from Old English feallan [intransitive
verb] to come down onto the ground
or from a high position to a lower
position. TFD:To drop or come down
freely under the influence of gravity.
MW: to descend freely by the force of
gravity.
AS NOUN: a boat or ship for taking
passengers and often vehicles across
an area of water, especially as a
regular service. [transitive verb] to
transport people or goods in a vehicle,
especially regularly and often. TFD:
[intransitive verb] To cross a body of
water on or as if on a ferry. [transitive
verb] To cross a body of water on or
as if on a ferry. MW: [transitive verb]
to carry by boat over a body of water.
to cross by a ferry. to convey (as by
aircraft or motor vehicle) from one
place to another.
[intransitive verb] to walk in a line,
one behind another. TFD: To march or
walk in a line. MW: to march or
proceed in single file.
wave something, especially wings
when or as if flying. TFD: [intransitive
verb] To move or sway while fixed at
one edge or corner; flutter. [transitive
verb] To cause to move or sway with a
fluttering or waving motion. MW: To
beat or pulsate wings or something
suggesting wings. To progress by
flapping. To flutter ineffectively.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To descend freely
(primarily by ‘weight’ or gravity):
opposed to ‘rise’. To drop from a high or
relatively high position. To drop, come
or go down, in a given direction or to a
required position.
[transitive verb] To carry, convey,
transport, take from one place to
another. esp. To transport or convey
over water (now only over a stream,
canal, etc., formerly also over the sea) in
a boat or ship, etc. Often to ferry (a
person, etc.) over or across. [intransitive
verb] To convey oneself, go; now only,
to pass over water in a boat or by a ferry.
Of a boat: To pass to and fro.
[intransitive verb] To march or move in
file.
mp-walk
[transitive verb] Of a bird: To strike with
the flat of the wing; also to drive off
(etc.) by flapping. [intransitive verb] Of
anything attached at one extremity or
loosely fastened: To swing or sway
about loosely; to flutter or oscillate as
when moved by the wind.
317
English Motion
verb
flee
flick
flip
flit
Motion AM
CAUSE + Path
+ Manner
Transl
Self-c
Self-c
Transl
Semantic
components
AM
AM
Manner
Manner
Manner
#
Path
Details
away from
G
3
(departure,
source)
1
1
1
Manner Details
mp-run
Shake, Swing,
Vibrate (short,
sudden
movement)
Upside Down
Rate-fast; Light
motion
escape by running away, especially [intransitive verb] To run away from or
because of danger or fear. TFD:To run as from danger; to take flight; to try to
away, as from trouble or danger. MW: escape or seek safety by flight.
to run away often from danger or evil.
move or hit something with a short
sudden movement. TFD: To twitch or
flutter. MW: to go or pass quickly or
abruptly. to move or propel with or as
if with a flick.
[intransitive and transitive verb] If you
flip something, you turn it over
quickly one or more times, and if
something flips, it turns over quickly.
TFD: To turn over. To turn over or
around, especially with a light quick
motion. MW: to change from one
position to another and especially turn
over. To cause to turn and especially
to turn over.
[intransitive verb] to fly or move
quickly and lightly. TFD: To move
about rapidly and nimbly. MW: to
move in an erratic fluttering manner.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
mp-run
[intransitive verb] To move with quick
vibrations. Of a bird: To flutter; in quot.
with out. Of a wound: To palpitate,
throb. [transitive verb] To remove
(something) with a smart stroke of
something flexible.
[intransitive verb] To make a flip or
fillip with the fingers. Also quasitransitive verb, To give a flip with (the
finger). [transitive verb] To move or
throw about with a flip or sudden jerk.
[transitive verb] To put into motion with
a flip or fillip, to ‘shoot’; to toss (a coin)
with a flip.
[intransitive verb] To move along, pass,
proceed; to pass lightly or softly and
(usually) with rapidity or suddenness. Of
a bird or other winged creature: To fly
lightly and swiftly; also, to make short
and swift flights, to flutter.
318
English Motion
verb
float
flounder
flutter
Motion AM
Self-c /
Transl
AM
Self-c
Self-c
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
AM
Manner
#
1
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] to stay on the
surface of a liquid and not sink.
(cause to) move easily through, or
along the surface of a liquid, or to
(cause to) move easily through air.
TFD: To remain suspended within or
on the surface of a fluid without
Smooth Motion
sinking.To be suspended in or move
through space as if supported by a
liquid. To cause to remain suspended
without sinking or falling. MW: to rest
on the surface of or be suspended in a
fluid. to drift on or through or as if on
or through a fluid. to cause to float in
or on the surface of a fluid.
[transitive verb] TFD:
To make
Unsteady
clumsy attempts to move or regain
Motion;
one's balance. MW: [intransitive verb]
Ackward Motion to struggle to move or obtain footing.
CAE: to move awkwardly.
Shake, Swing,
Vibrate
make a series of quick delicate
movements up and down or from side
to side, or to cause something to do
this. TFD: To wave or flap rapidly in
an irregular manner. To vibrate or beat
rapidly or erratically. To cause to
flutter. MW: to flap the wings rapidly.
to move with quick wavering or
flapping motions. To cause to flutter.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To rest on the surface
of any liquid; to be buoyed up; to be or
become buoyant. To move quietly and
gently on the surface of a liquid,
participating in its motion. To move
freely and gently in or through the air, as
if buoyed up or carried along by it.
Low
[intransitive verb] In early use, to
ratings.
stumble. Subsequently, to struggle
NO
violently and clumsily; to plunge, roll
significant
and tumble about in or as in mire.
difference
[intransitive verb] Of birds, etc.: To
move or flap the wings rapidly without
flying or with short flights; to move up
and down or to and fro in quick irregular
motions, or hang upon wing in the air.
To move with a light quivering motion
through the air. [intransitive verb] To
move about or to and fro with quick
vibrations or undulations; to quiver.
[transitive verb] (causatively) To cause
to flutter; to move (a thing) in quick
irregular motions; to agitate, ruffle.
319
English Motion
verb
fly
follow
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
ford
Transl
foxtrot
Self-c
frisk
Transl
Semantic
components
Ground (air)
Path
#
Manner
Manner Details
1
1
Path + Ground
3
(river) + Manner
Manner
Path
Details
1
1
after G
pass/cross
G
mp-walk;
Obstructed
motion?
Dance
Playful Motion
[intransitive verb] When a bird, insect
or aircraft flies, it moves through the
air. [intransitive and transitive verb] to
travel by aircraft, or to go somewhere
or cross something in an aircraft. TFD:
To move through the air by means of
wings or winglike parts.To travel by
air. MW: to move in or pass through
the air with wings b: to move through
the air or before the wind or through
outer space.
[intransitive verb] To move through the
air with wings. [intransitive and
transitive verb] To travel by aircraft.
Also [transitive verb], to cover, traverse,
or perform by aircraft (also said of the
machine).
move behind someone or something
and go where they go. TFD: To come
or go after; proceed behind. MW: to
go, proceed, or come after.
[transitive verb] To go or come after (a
person or other object in motion); to
move behind in the same direction. To
go forward along (a path), to keep in (a
track) as one goes. [intransitive verb] To
go or come after a person or thing in
motion; to move behind some object;
also, to go as a person's attendant or
companion.
[transitive verb] to cross a river, where
it is not deep, on foot or in a vehicle.
TFD: cross a river where it's shallow.
MW: to cross (a body of water) by
wading (=to step in or through a
medium (as water) offering more
resistance than air).
AS NOUN: (a piece of music for) a
type of formal ballroom dance that
combines short quick steps with
longer ones in various patterns.
[intransitive verb] TFD: To dance the
fox trot. MW: to dance the fox-trot.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[transitive verb] To cross (water) by
means of a ford; to wade through (To
walk through water or any liquid or soft
substance which impedes motion).
v. [intransitive verb], to dance a fox-trot
Low
[intransitive verb] TFD: To move
[intransitive verb] Of living beings: To ratings.
about briskly and playfully; frolic.
move briskly and sportively; to dance,
NO
MW: to leap, skip, or dance in a lively
significant
frolic, gambol, jig.
or playful way.
difference
320
English Motion
verb
frolic
Motion AM
Transl
gallop1
Transl
gallop2
Transl
gambol
gimp [limp,
hobble]
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
AM
#
1
Manner
1
Manner
1
Manner
Manner
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] to behave in a
happy and playful way. TFD: To
Playful Motion behave playfully and uninhibitedly;
romp. MW: to play and run about
happily : romp.
[intransitive and transitive verb](of a
horse) to run fast so that all four feet
come off the ground together in each
mp-run; Rateact of forward movement. TFD: To
fast
move or progress swiftly. To cause to
gallop. MW: to run fast. to cause to
gallop.
[intransitive and transitive verb] (of a
Vehicle /
person) to ride a horse that is running
Instrument (on a in this way. TFD: To ride a horse at a
horse); Rate-fast gallop. MW: to progress or ride at a
gallop.
Playful Motion
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
Low
[intransitive verb] To make merry; in ratings.
later use, to play pranks, gambol, caper
NO
significant
about.
difference
[intransitive verb] Of a horse (occas. of
other quadrupeds): to go at a gallop.
[transitive verb] To make (a horse, etc.)
go at full speed.
mp-run
[intransitive verb] Of a horseman: To
ride at full speed.
mp-run
Low
[intransitive verb] to run and jump in a
[intransitive verb] To leap or spring, in ratings.
happy and playful way. TFD: To leap
dancing or sporting; Now chiefly of
NO
about playfully; frolic. MW: to skip
significant
animals or children.
about in play.
difference
mp-walk; State
of the Figure
(injured) →
[intransitive verb] TFD: to walk with a
Unsteady
limp. MW: [intransitive verb] limp, NO found as motion verb
Motion; Forced hobble. MW: limp, hobble.
Motion (Energylow)
321
English Motion
verb
glide1
glide2
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
go
Transl
gondola gondole [verb]
Transl
AM
AM
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
Path
NO
Manner
#
Path
Details
1
1
Manner Details
Contact
[between F and
G]; Smooth
Motion
Furtive Motion
Deixis:
away from
1
G
(speaker)
Vehicle /
Instrument
[intransitive verb] to move easily
without stopping and without effort or
noise. TFD: To move in a smooth,
effortless manner. To move silently
and furtively. [transitive verb] To
cause to move or pass smoothly,
silently, or imperceptibly. MW: to
move smoothly, continuously, and
effortlessly. to cause to glide.
[intransitive verb] To pass from one
place to another by a smooth and
continuous movement, without effort or
difficulty. Along the surface of, or
through, a liquid. in general. Now often
applied to the progression of a person
walking or riding, of a carriage, etc., to
express
extreme
smoothness
of
movement and the absence of
perceptible motion of the limbs, wheels,
etc. Said of the mode of progression of
reptiles. [transitive verb] to cause to
glide (in different senses).
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
silently and furtively. [transitive verb] [intransitive verb] To go unperceived,
To cause to move or pass smoothly, quietly, or stealthily; to insinuate
silently, or imperceptibly. MW: to go oneself, steal, ‘slip’ into, out of a place.
or pass imperceptibly.
An intransitive verb of motion, serving
as the most general expression (I) for a
[intransitive verb] to travel or move to movement viewed without regard to its
another place. TFD: To move or point of departure or destination; (II) for
travel; proceed. To move away from a a movement away from the speaker, or
place; depart. MW: o move on a from the point at which he mentally
course. to move out of or away from a places himself; and (III) for a movement
place expressed or implied.
to or towards a place which is neither in
fact nor in thought that occupied by the
speaker.
AS NOUN: a narrow boat with a
raised point at both ends, which is [intransitive verb] To travel in a
used on canals in Venice and is moved gondola. [transitive verb] to propel (a
by a man with a pole. TFD, MW: NO gondola).
322
English Motion
verb
goosestep
Motion AM
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
#
1
Contact
[between F and
G]: Body close
to ground: State
fo Figure
(humiliated)
Transl
Manner
1
guide
Transl
Figure + COMOTION
2
Transl
hasten
Transl
AM
Manner Details
mp-walk;
Characteristic
use of lower
body (Stepsregular; Legslifted high)
grovel
hare
Path
Details
Manner
1
Rate-fast; mprun;
Uncontrolled
Motion?
Manner
1
Rate-increase
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] a special way of
marching with the legs lifted high and
straight. TFD: NO FOUND AS
MOTION VERB. MW: to march in a
goose step.
AS NOUN: An elementary drill in
which the recruit is taught to balance his
body on either leg alternately, and swing
the other backwards and forwards. b.
A balance step, practised esp. by various
armies in marching on ceremonial
parades, in which the legs are alternately
advanced without bending the knees.
[jntransitive verb] to practise this drill
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] to move close to or
on the ground. TFD: To lie or creep in
a prostrate position, as in subservience
or humility. MW: to creep with the
face to the ground. to lie or creep with
the body prostrate in token of
subservience or abasement.
[transitive verb] to show people round
a place. TFD: To serve as a guide for;
conduct.MW: to act as a guide to :
direct in a way or course.
[intransitive verb] to run or go very
quickly, usually in an uncontrolled
way. TFD: To move hurriedly, as if
hunting a swift quarry. MW: to go
swiftly .
TFD: [intransitive verb] To move or
act swiftly. [transitive verb] To cause
to hurry. To speed up; accelerate.
MW: to move or act quickly.
[intransitive verb] to move with the
body prostrate upon the ground. To
grovel in the dust or dirt (fig.): to
humble oneself, perform an act of
humiliation.
[transitive verb] To act as guide to; to go
with or before for the purpose of leading
the way
[intransitive verb] To run or move with
great speed.
[intransitive verb] To make haste; to
come, go, or act quickly. [transitive
verb] To cause to make haste; to urge
on; to accelerate, expedite, hurry.
mp-run /
mp-walk
323
English Motion
verb
helicopter
hike
hobble
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
AM
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
Manner
#
1
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
AS NOUN: a type of aircraft without
wings, that has one or two sets of large
blades which go round very fast on
Vehicle /
top. TFD: [intransitive and transitive
Instrument
verb] To go or transport by helicopter.
MW: [intransitive verb] to travel by
helicopter. [transitive verb] to
transport by helicopter.
[intransitive verb] to go for a long
walk in the countryside. LLA: To take
mp-walk;
a long walk in the countryside. TFD:
Leisurely Motion To go on an extended walk for
pleasure or exercise. MW: to go on a
hike.
mp-walk; State
of Figure
(injured) →
Unsteady
Motion; Forced
Motion (Energylow)
[intransitive verb] to walk in an
awkward way, usually because the feet
or legs are injured. LLA: To walk with
difficulty in a slow and unsteady way
because it is painful for you to walk.
TFD: o walk or move along haltingly
or with difficulty; limp. MW: to move
along unsteadily or with difficulty;
especially : to limp along.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive and transitive verb] to fly
with or as with a helicopter; to transport
by helicopter
[intransitive verb] To walk or march
vigorously or laboriously. To walk for
pleasure; to go for a long walk, or
walking tour, spec. in the country.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb]To walk with an
unsteady rising and falling gait, as one
whose limbs give way under him; to
walk lamely and with difficulty; to limp.
mp-walk
324
English Motion
verb
hop
Motion AM
Self-c /
Transl
?
Semantic
components
Manner
#
Path
Details
mp-jump;
Characteristic
use of lower
body
1
hound
Transl
Path
1
hover
Self-c
Ground (on air)
1
Manner Details
after G
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] to jump on one foot
or to move about in this way. If a
small animal, bird or insect hops, it
moves by jumping on all or two of its
feet at the same time. LLA: To jump
or move forward on one leg rather
than two. TFD: To move with light
bounding skips or leaps. MW: to move
by a quick springy leap or in a series
of leaps; also : to move as if by
hopping.
[intransitive verb] Of a person: To
spring or leap on one foot, or move
onwards by a succession of such leaps.
To spring a short way upon the ground
or any surface with an elastic or
bounding movement, or a succession of
such movements: said of persons,
animals, and things. Formerly a general
synonym of leap; now implying a short
or undignified leap. Of animals: To
move by leaps with both or all the feet at
once, as opposed to walking or running:
said esp. of small birds, frogs, grasshoppers, sand-hoppers, fleas, and the
like.
mp-jump
[transitive verb] to chase someone or
refuse to leave them alone, especially
because you want to get something [transitive verb] To hunt, chase, or
from them. TFD: To pursue pursue with hounds, or as a dog does.
relentlessly and tenaciously. MW: to
pursue with or as if with hounds.
[intransitive motion] Of a winged
creature: To hang or remain suspended
[intransitive verb] to stay in one place in the air over or about a particular spot,
in the air, usually by moving the wings as by flapping the wings (to which
quickly. TFD: To remain floating, action the word is sometimes restricted
suspended, or fluttering in the air. by naturalists: cf. 4), esp. when
MW: to hang fluttering in the air or on preparing to dart or swoop in some
the wing.
direction. Of a helicopter or other
aircraft: to remain stationary in the air,
relative to the ground.
mp-run
325
English Motion
verb
hurl
hurry
hurtle
immigrate
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
Transl
AM
AM
AM
AM
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
Manner
Path + Ground
(country)
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
especially in what seems a dangerous
Rate-fast; Forced
with great speed, force, or violence;
Motion (Energyhurtle. [transitive verb] to throw
high)
something with a lot of force, usually
in an angry or violent way. MW: rush,
hurtle. to throw down with violence.
move or do things more quickly than
normal or to make someone do this.
TFD: To move or act with speed or
Rate-increase
haste.To cause to move or act with
speed or haste. MW: to move or act
with haste. To carry or cause to go
with haste.
1
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To move, or be
carried or driven with violence or
impetuosity; to rush impetuously; to
dash. [transitive verb] To drive or impel
with impetuous force or violence.
[intransitive verb] To move or act with
excited haste, or with an evident or
apparent effort at speed. [transitive
verb] To carry, convey, or cause to go
with excessive haste, under the influence
of external pressure or of excitement.
mp-run /
mp-walk
1
especially in what seems a dangerous
Rate-fast; Forced
with or as if with great speed and a
Motion (Energyrushing noise. [transitive verb] To
high)
fling with great force; hurl. MW: to
move rapidly or forcefully. [transitive
verb] hurl, fling.
[intransitive verb] To strike together or
against something, esp. with violence or
noise; to come into collision; to dash,
clash, impinge; to meet in shock and
encounter. To dash, rush, hurry; esp.
with noise. [transitive verb] To drive
violently or swiftly; to dash, dart, shoot,
fling, cast. App. often confounded with
hurl.
mp-run
2
[intransitive verb] TFD: To enter and
settle in a country or region to which
one is not native. [transitive verb] To
send or introduce as immigrants. MW:
To enter and settle in a country or
region to which one is not native.
[transitive verb] to bring in or send as
immigrants
[intransitive verb] To come to settle in a
country (which is not one's own); to pass
into a new habitat or place of residence .
[transitive verb] trans. To bring in or
introduce as settlers.
1
into G
326
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
inch
Transl
AM
Manner
1
Gradual stages
jeep
Transl
NO
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
jet
Transl
AM?
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
jig1
jig2
Self-c
Self-c
Manner
AM
Manner
1
1
Dance
Shake, Swing,
Vibrate
move very slowly or in a lot of short
stages. TFD: To move or cause to
move slowly or by small degrees.
MW: to move by small degrees:
progress slowly . [transitive verb] to
cause to move slowly.
AS NOUN: a small strong vehicle
used for travelling over rough ground,
especially by the army. TFD: NO
FOUND AS MOTION VERB. MW:
[intransitive verb] to travel by jeep.
AS NOUN: an aircraft with a jet
engine, which is able to fly very fast.
[intransitive verb] to travel somewhere
by plane. TFD: [intransitive verb] fly a
jet plane. MW: [intransitive verb] to
travel by jet airplane.
AS NOUN: an energetic traditional
dance of Great Britain and Ireland, or
the music that is played for such a
dance. TFD: To dance or play a jig.
MW: to dance a jig.
move quickly up and down or from
side to side, or to make someone or
something do this. TFD: To move or
bob up and down jerkily and rapidly.
MW: to move with rapid jerky
motions.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To move, advance, or
retreat, by inches or small degrees.
[transitive verb] To drive by inches or
small degrees.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To travel by jeep.
[intransitive verb] To travel by jet plane.
[transitive verb] to convey by jet plane
or jet engine.
[transitive verb] To dance (a jig or other
lively dance). [intransitive verb] To
dance a jig; to dance in a rapid, jerky,
lively fashion.
down or to and fro with a rapid jerky
motion. [transitive verb] To move (any
thing) with a light jerky motion; to jerk
to and fro or up and down.
327
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
jitterbug
Self-c
Manner
1
Dance
jive
Self-c
Manner
1
Dance
jog
Transl
Manner
1
mp-run; Rateslow, regular
journey
Transl
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
AS NOUN: TFD: A strenuous dance
performed to quick-tempo swing or
jazz music and consisting of various
two-step patterns embellished with
twirls and sometimes acrobatic
maneuvers. [intransitive verb] to
perform this dance. MW: to dance the
jitterbug.
AS NOUN: a fast dance which was
very popular with young people in the
1940s and 1950s. [intransitive verb]
dance to jive music. TFD:To play or
dance to jive music. MW: to dance to
or play jive.
[intransitive verb] to run at a slow
regular speed, especially as a form of
exercise. LLA: To run fairly slowly
for a long distance, for exercise, and to
keep healthy. TFD: To run or ride at a
steady slow trot. Sports To run in such
a way for sport or exercise. MW: to
run or ride at a slow trot.
[intransitive
verb]
to
travel
somewhere. TFD, MW: [intransitive
and transitive verb] To make a
journey; travel. To travel over or
through.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive
jitterbug.
verb]
To
dance
the
[intransitive verb] To dance the ‘jive’
[intransitive verb] To walk or ride with a
jolting pace, ‘to move with small shocks
like those of a low trot’ (J.); to move on
at a heavy or laboured pace, to trudge;
hence, to move on, go on, be off. More
recently, to run at a gentle pace (esp. as
part of a ‘keep-fit’ schedule).
mp-run
[intransitive verb] To make or proceed
on a journey; to travel.
328
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
jump
Self-c /
Transl
?
kayak
Transl
keel
Self-c
NO
AM
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
Manner
1
mp-jump
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
Manner
1
Upside Down
[intransitive verb] to push yourself
suddenly off the ground and into the
air using your legs. [intransitive and
transitive verb]
to push yourself
suddenly off the ground in order to go
over something. LLA: To push
yourself off the ground or away from
something, using your legs.To go over
something
by
jumping.
TFD:
[intransitive verb] To spring off the
ground or other base by a muscular
effort of the legs and feet. To move
suddenly and in one motion.
[transitive verb] To leap over or
across. MW: to spring into the air :
leap; especially: to spring free from
the ground or other base by the
muscular action of feet and legs. To
move suddenly or involuntarily.
[transitive verb] to leap over.
AS NOUN: a light narrow canoe with
a covering over the top. TFD:
[intransitive verb] To go, travel, or
race in a kayak. [transitive verb] To go
or travel on (a body of water) by
kayak. MW: [intransitive verb]
[intransitive verb] (a person) to fall
over suddenly. If a boat keels over, it
turns upside down in the water. TFD:
capsize or cause to capsize. MW:
[intransitive verb] to fall in or as if in a
faint —usually used with over.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To make a spring
from the ground or other base by flexion
and sudden muscular extension of the
legs (or, in the case of some animals, as
fish, of the tail, or other part); to throw
oneself upward, forward, backward, or
downward, from the ground or point of
support; to leap, spring, bound; spec. to
leap with the feet together, as opposed to
hopping on one leg. To move suddenly
with a leap, bound, or the like
movement; to ‘spring’, ‘dart’, ‘shoot’.
[transitive verb] To pass clear over by a
leap; to leap or spring over; to clear.
[intransitive verb] to travel by kayak
[intransitive verb] To turn or be turned
over; to be upset; to fall over or be felled
as if by a shock. [transitive verb] To turn
up the keel of, show the bottom of. to
keel over, to turn over, ‘turn wrong side
uppermost’, turn (a man or beast) upon
his back; to upset, capsize.
329
English Motion
verb
kick
kneel
land
Motion AM
Figure (body
part: feet, legs)
Self-c
Self-c
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
AM
Path + Ground
(land)
#
Path
Details
[intransitive and transitive verb] to hit
someone or something with the foot,
or to move the feet and legs suddenly
and violently. TFD: To strike out with
the foot or feet.To strike with the foot.
MW: to strike out with the foot or feet.
to strike, thrust, or hit with the foot.
[intransitive verb] to go down into, or
stay in, a position where one or both
Posture (vertical- knees are on the ground. TFD: To go
downwards)
down or rest on one or both knees.
MW: to bend the knee : fall or rest on
the knees.
1
1
2
Manner Details
down onto
G (arrival,
endpoint)
(cause to) arrive at a place after
moving down through the air. TFD:
To come to shore.To disembark. To
descend toward and settle onto the
ground or another surface. [transitive
verb] To bring to and unload on land.
MW: to go ashore from a ship. to
come to the end of a course or to a
stage in a journey. to alight on a
surface. [transitive verb] to set or put
on shore from a ship.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To strike out with the
foot.
[transitive verb] To strike (anything)
with the foot.
[intransitive verb] To fall on the knees
or a knee; to assume, or remain in, a
posture in which the body is supported
on the bended knees or on one of them,
as in supplication or homage.
[intransitive verb] To come to land; to
go ashore from a ship or boat; to
disembark. To arrive at a place, a stage
in a journey, or the like; to come to a
stage in a progression; to end in
something. To alight upon the ground,
e.g. from a vehicle, after a leap, etc. Esp.
of an aircraft or spacecraft, or a person
in one: to alight upon or reach the
ground, or some other surface, after a
flight. [transitive verb] To bring to land;
to set on shore; to disembark. To bring
into a specified place, e.g. as a stage in
or termination of a journey; to bring into
a certain position. To bring (an aircraft)
to earth from the air; to place (an aircraft
or spacecraft, or its contents) on the
ground or some other surface after a
flight.
330
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
lead
Transl
lean
Self-c
leap
Self-c /
Transl
?
AM
Semantic
components
#
Figure + COMOTION
1
Manner
1
Manner
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] to show the way to
a group of people, animals, vehicles,
etc. by going in front of them. TFD:
To show the way to by going in
advance. MW: to guide on a way
especially by going in advance. to
guide someone or something along a
way.
(cause to) slope in one direction, or to
move the top part of the body in a
particular direction. TFD: To bend or
Posture (towards slant away from the vertical.To incline
horizontal;
the weight of the body so as to be
supported. To cause to incline. MW:
Bend)
to incline, deviate, or bend from a
vertical position b: to cast one's weight
to one side for support. to cause to
lean.
[intransitive verb] to make a large
jump or sudden movement, usually
from one place to another. LLA: To
mp-jump;
jump as far or high as you can. To go
Characteristic over something with a long or high
use of lower
jump. [intransitive and transitive verb]
body (Long or TFD: To spring or bound upward from
high jump)
or as if from the ground; jump. To
jump over. MW: to spring free from or
as if from the ground. to pass over by
leaping.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[transitive verb] To conduct. To cause to
go along with oneself.
[intransitive verb] To recline, lie down,
rest. [transitive verb] To cause to bend
or incline.
[intransitive verb] To rise with both (or
all four) feet suddenly from the ground
or other standing-place, alighting in
some other position; to jump, spring. To
spring suddenly to or upon one's feet; to
rise with a bound from a sitting or
recumbent position. [transitive verb] To
spring over; to pass from one side to the
other by leaping.
mp-jump
331
English Motion
verb
leap-frog
Motion AM
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
leave
Transl
Path
limp
Transl
Manner
lope
Transl
Manner
#
Path
Details
1
away from
G
1
(departure,
source)
1
1
Manner Details
AS NOUN: a children's game in which
a number of children bend down and
another child jumps over them one at a
time. TFD: [transitive verb] To jump
Animal-like →
over in or as if in leapfrog.
mp-jump
[intransitive verb] To move forward or
progress in or as if in leapfrog. MW:
to leap or progress in or as if in
leapfrog.
Middle English leven, from Old
English lǣfan; akin to Old High
German verleiben to leave, Old
English belīfan to be left over.
away from someone or something, for
a short time or permanently. TFD:To
go out of or away from. MW: to go
away from.
[intransitive verb] to walk unevenly
and slowly because of having an
mp-walk; State
injured or painful leg or foot. LLA: To
of Figure
walk with difficulty because you have
(injured) →
hurt one of your legs. TFD: To walk
Unsteady
lamely, especially with irregularity, as
Motion; Forced
if favoring one leg. MW: to walk
Motion (Energylamely; especially : to walk favoring
low)
one leg. To go unsteadily. to proceed
slowly or with difficulty.
mp-run; Rateslow;
Characteristic
use of lower
body (Stepslong)?
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb and transitive verb] To
leap or vault as at leap-frog.
[transitive verb] To depart from, quit,
relinquish. To go away from, quit (a
place, person, or thing); to deviate from
(a line of road, etc.).
[intransitive verb] To walk lamely, to
halt.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] (of a person or
animal) to run taking long relaxed
[intransitive verb] To leap, jump, spring.
steps. TFD: To run or ride with a
To run with a long, bounding stride.
steady, easy gait. MW: to move or ride
at a lope.
mp-walk
332
English Motion
verb
lumber
lunge
lurch
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Self-c
Semantic
components
Manner
AM
Path + Manner
Manner
#
Path
Details
1
Manner Details
Rate-slow;
Awkward
Motion
to/towards
2
G
Forced Motion
(Energy-high)
1
Unsteady
Motion; Jerky,
Sudden
movement
[intransitive verb] to move slowly and
awkwardly. TFD: move heavily or
clumsily. MW: to move ponderously
(=clumsily).
[intransitive verb] to move forward
suddenly and with force, especially in
order to attack someone. [intransitive
and transitive verb] TFD: To move
with a sudden thrust.To cause
(someone) to lunge. MW: to make a
lunge : move with or as if with a
lunge. to thrust or propel (as a blow)
in a lunge.
[intransitive verb] to move in an
irregular way, especially making
sudden movements backwards or
forwards or from side to side. LLA:
To walk very unsteadily, moving
forward or from side to side with
sudden, irregular movements. TFD:
To stagger. MW: to move with a
lurch (=an abrupt jerking, swaying, or
tipping movement)
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To move in a clumsy
or blundering manner.
mp-walk
lunge; to make a sudden forward
movement; to rush. [transitive verb] To
drive or thrust with or as with a lunge.
[intransitive verb] To move suddenly,
unsteadily, and without purpose in any
direction, as, e.g. a person staggering.
mp-walk
333
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
march1
Transl
march2
Transl
meander1
meander2
Transl
Transl
AM
Semantic
components
#
Manner
1
Manner
1
Manner
Manner
1
1
Path
Details
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To walk in a military
manner with regular and measured tread.
Of a body of men or troops: to walk in
step and in time with a regular and
uniform movement. [transitive verb] To
cause (a person, army) to march or move
in military order.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To walk in a steady,
measured, or deliberate manner; to go,
proceed.
mp-walk
Path-shape
[intransitive verb] If a river, stream or
road meanders, it follows a route
which is not straight or direct. To walk [intransitive verb] Of a river, stream,
slowly without any clear direction. etc.: to flow in meanders; to follow a
TFD: To follow a winding and turning winding course.
course. MW: to follow a winding or
intricate course.
mp-walk
mp-walk; No
aim in motion
[intransitive verb] To walk slowly
without any clear direction. TFD: To [intransitive verb] Of a person: to
move aimlessly and idly without fixed wander aimlessly; to follow a circuitous
direction. MW: to wander aimlessly or course.
casually without urgent destination.
Manner Details
walk with regular steps keeping the
body stiff, usually in a formal group of
people who are all walking in the
same way. LLA: If soldiers march,
they all walk together with regular
mp-walk;
steps. TFD: [intransitive verb] To
Characteristic walk steadily and rhythmically
forward in step with others. To
use of lower
body (Stepsparticipate in an organized walk, as for
a public cause. [transitive verb] To
regular)
cause to move or otherwise progress in
a steady rhythmical manner. MW:
[intransitive verb] to move along
steadily usually with a rhythmic stride
and in step with others. [transitive
verb] to cause to march.
[intransitive verb] to walk somewhere
quickly and in a determined way,
often because you are angry. LLA: To
mp-walk; State
walk quickly and with firm steps,
of Figure (angry,
especially because you feel angry or
determined)?
determined. TFD: To proceed directly
and purposefully. MW: to move in a
direct purposeful manner.
334
English Motion
verb
mince
moonwalk1
Motion AM
Transl
Self-c
moped
Transl
mosey
motor
Manner
Manner +
Ground
Transl
moonwalk2
NO
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
1
2
Manner Details
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
mp-walk;
Characteristic
use of lower
body (Stepsshort)
artificial way, with small delicate
steps. TFD: To walk with very short
steps or with exaggerated primness.
MW: to walk with short steps in a
prim affected manner.
[intransitive verb] To walk with short
steps and an affected preciseness or
daintiness; to walk or move in an
affected or effeminate manner.
mp-walk
mp-walk
Manner
1
Dance
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
1
mp-walk;
Leisurely
Motion; No aim
in Motion
Manner
AM?
#
Path
Details
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
AS NOUN: a kind of dance step in
which the dancer seems to be sliding
on the spot. TFD: [intransitive verb]
To walk on the surface of the moon.
MW: NO FOUND
TFD: NO FOUND. MW: [intransitive
verb] to dance by gliding backwards
while appearing to make forward
walking motions.
AS NOUN: a small motorcycle which
also has pedals which can be used
when starting it or travelling up a hill.
CALD, TFD, MW: NO FOUND AS
MOTION VERB.
[intransitive verb] to walk or go
slowly, usually without a special
purpose. TFD: To move in a leisurely,
relaxed way; saunter. MW: to move in
a leisurely or aimless manner.
[intransitive verb] To walk on the moon.
rare.
[intransitive verb] To perform the
moonwalk. [transitive verb] To make
(one's way) as if doing the moonwalk; to
convey (an object) by this means.
AS NOUN: Originally: a motorized
pedal cycle. Now usually: a light twowheeled motor vehicle with a small
engine. NO FOUND AS MOTION
VERB.
[intransitive verb] Originally: to go
away quickly or promptly; to make haste
(now rare). Later usually: to walk in a
leisurely or aimless manner; to amble,
wander.
mp-walk
[intransitive
verb]
UK
OLDFASHIONED
to
drive;
TFD:
[intransitive verb] To drive or travel in
a motor vehicle. [transitive verb] To [intransitive verb] To travel or drive in a
carry by motor vehicle. MW: motor vehicle.
[transitive verb] to travel by
automobile. [transitive verb] to
transport by automobile.
335
English Motion
verb
motorbike,
motorcycle
Motion AM
Transl
mount
Transl
move
Self-c
+
Transl
NO
Semantic
components
Manner
Path
AM
(Motion)
#
Path
Details
1
Earthbased
1 orientation:
upwards;
up / onto G
Manner Details
Vehicle /
Instrument
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
AS NOUN: US a small light
motorcycle. A vehicle with two [intransitive verb] To ride on a
wheels and an engine. TFD: motorcycle. [intransitive verb] To ride
[intransitive verb] to ride a a motorcycle.
motorcycle. MW: [intransitive verb]
Senses relating to elevation or upward
movement. [intransitive verb] To fly
upwards, to soar, to ascend. Of a
missile: to rise in its flight. [intransitive
verb] To travel or proceed in an upward
direction; to ascend or climb.
[transitive verb] to go up or onto. [intransitive verb] To ascend to a higher
TFD: to climb or to ascend. MW: level in rank, estimation, power,
[intransitive and transitive verb] rise, excellence, completeness. [transitive
ascend. To get up on something above verb] To cause to ascend or rise; to raise,
the level of the ground; especially: to elevate, lift, draw or drive up. Senses
seat oneself (as on a horse) for riding. relating to upward motion on to
something. [intransitive verb] To get up
on to the back of a horse or other animal
(occas. on a person's shoulders) for the
purpose of riding. [transitive verb] To
set on the back of a horse or other
animal.
(cause to) change position. to go to a To go from one place, position, state,
to
another.
different place to live or work. TFD: etc.,
[intransitive verb]To change in [intransitive verb] Of a person, a part of
position from one point to another. To the body, etc.: to change position or
change posture or position. [transitive posture; to exhibit motion or physical
verb] To change the place or position activity. [transitive verb] To change the
of. To cause to go from one place to place or position of (a thing; occas. a
another. MW: [intransitive verb] to go person); to cause to change from one
or pass to another place or in a certain place, position, or situation to another;
direction with a continuous motion. to to shift, remove; to dislodge or displace
change position or posture. [transitive (something fixed).
verb] to change the place or position
of.
336
English Motion
verb
nip
Motion AM
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
#
1
nod
Self-c
Figure (body
part: head)
1
oar
Transl
Manner
1
outrun
overturn
Manner + CoMotion / Action 2
correlation
Transl
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
Rate-fast
Vehicle /
Instrument
[intransitive verb] to go somewhere
quickly or be somewhere for only a
short time. TFD: To move quickly;
dart. MW: to move briskly, nimbly, or
quickly.
move your head down and then up,
sometimes repeatedly, especially to
show agreement, approval or greeting
or to show something by doing this.
TFD: To lower and raise the head
quickly, as in agreement or
acknowledgment. To let the head fall
forward when sleepy. MW: to make a
quick downward motion of the head
whether deliberately (as in expressing
assent or salutation) or involuntarily
(as from drowsiness).
To propel with or as if with oars or an
oar. To move forward by or as if by
rowing. MW: to propel with or as if
with oars. to progress by or as if by
using oars.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] colloq. (chiefly Brit.).
mp-walk /
To move rapidly or nimbly; to go
mp-run
quickly; to make a brief excursion.
[intransitive verb] To make a brief
inclination of the head, esp. in
salutation, assent, or command, or to
draw
attention
to
something.
[transitive verb] To incline (the head)
briefly in a nod.
[intransitive verb] To row; to move or
advance as if by means of oars.
mp-run; Ratefaster than
[transitive verb] To outdo in running; to
[transitive verb] to move faster or run faster or further than. Also: to leave
further than someone or something. behind by greater speed; to escape,
TFD: To run faster than. MW: to run elude.
faster than.
Upside Down
(cause to) turn over. TFD: To turn
over or capsize. To cause to turn over
or capsize; upset. MW: Turn over. to
cause to turn over.
[intransitive verb] To tip or topple over;
to turn upside down, capsize. [transitive
verb] To tip or throw over on to one side
or face, esp. violently; to upset or
capsize (a thing); to cause to fall over or
down.
337
English Motion
verb
pace
pad
paddle1
paddle2
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
Manner +
Ground (water)
Manner
#
1
1
2
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
mp-walk; State
of Figure
(anxious,
worried)
walk with regular steps in one
direction and then back again, usually
because you are anxious or worried.
LLA: To walk backwards and
forwards within a small area,
especially because you are nervous,
bored, or angry. TFD: [transitive verb]
To walk or stride back and forth
across. [intransitive verb] To walk
with long deliberate steps. MW: to
walk with often slow or measured
tread.to go at a pace —used especially
of a horse.
measured or regular step; to walk or
stride along steadily. Also: to move in
this way as an expression of anxiety,
frustration, etc.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] LLA: to walk
quietly and steadily, without shoes or
with soft shoes, or on a soft surface.
mp-walk; Furtive
TFD: walk heavily and firmly, as
Motion ?
when weary, or through mud. MW: to
go on foot : walk; especially : to walk
with or as if with padded feet.
[intransitive verb] To journey on foot,
esp. as an itinerant or a person seeking
work. [transitive verb] and [intransitive
verb] travel on foot; to go tramping or
wandering. [intransitive verb] Of a
person: to walk with soft, steady steps,
esp. without shoes, etc., putting each
foot down quietly in a single motion. Of
an animal: to walk softly, stealthily, or
calmly. Also with the feet as subject.
mp-walk /
mp-run
[intransitive verb] To wade, walk about,
or play in shallow water or mud; to
agitate water with one's feet; to dabble
one's feet or hands in water. Also
transitive verb: to dabble (a finger or
toe) in water, a pond, etc.
mp-walk
walk with bare feet through shallow
water, often at the edge of the sea.
mp-walk; Playful LLA: British, American wade, to walk
Motion
in water that is not very deep, for
enjoyment. MW: [intransitive verb] to
move the hands or feet about in
shallow water.
TFD: [intransitive verb] To propel a
watercraft with paddles or a paddle.
Vehicle /
[transitive verb] To propel (a
Instrument
watercraft) with paddles or a paddle.
To convey in a watercraft propelled by
paddles. MW: NO FOUND
[intransitive verb] Of a person in a
canoe, small boat, etc.: to move forward
by means of a paddle or paddles. Also
with canoe, etc., as subject. To row
lightly or gently with oars.
338
English Motion
verb
paddle3
parachute
parade
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
AM
Semantic
components
#
Manner
1
Manner
Manner
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] To walk with short,
mp-walk;
TFD: NO FOUND. MW: [intransitive unsteady, or uncoordinated steps like a
Unsteady Motion verb] toddle.
child, often with a rocking motion; to
toddle, doddle.
Vehicle /
Instrument
[intransitive verb] to jump from an
aircraft using a parachute. [transitive
verb] to drop someone or something
from an aircraft by parachute. TFD:
[transitive verb] To drop (supplies or
troops, for example) by means of a
parachute. [intransitive verb] To
descend by means of a parachute.
MW: [transitive verb] to convey by
means of a parachute. [intransitive
verb] to descend by means of a
parachute.
[transitive verb] To convey or drop
down or into a place by means of a
parachute. [intransitive verb] To descend
by parachute; to use a parachute.
mp-walk; State
of the Figure
(proud)
[intransitive and transitive verb](of a
group) to walk or march somewhere,
usually as part of a public celebration.
LLA: To walk proudly around a place,
in a way that shows you want people
to notice and admire you. TFD: To
take part in a parade; march in a public
procession. MW: to march in or as if
in a procession. To show off.
[intransitive verb] To march in
procession or with great display or
ostentation; to walk up and down,
promenade, etc., in a public place, esp.
in order to be seen; to show off.
[transitive verb] To march through (a
place) in procession or with great
display; to walk up and down,
promenade along (a street, etc.) or
through (a place), esp. in order to be
seen.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
mp-walk
mp-walk
339
English Motion
verb
pass
pedal
penetrate
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
AM
AM
Semantic
components
Path
Manner
Path
pass/cross
G
1
(traversal,
milestone)
Anglo-French passer, from Vulgar
Latin *passare, from Latin passus step.
past something or someone or move in
relation to it. TFD: To move on or
ahead;
proceed.To
move
by.
[transitive verb] To go beyond;
surpass. To go across; go through. To
go by without stopping; leave behind.
To cause to go by. MW: move,
proceed, go. to move in a path so as to
approach and continue beyond
something. to go or make one's way
through. [transitive verb] to go
beyond. to go past (one moving in the
same direction). to go by : proceed or
extend beyond.
I. To excel or surpass. [transitive verb]
To go beyond (a point or place). II. To
proceed, move forward, depart. to cause
to do this. [intransitive verb] Of a person
or animal: to go by or past. To go on,
move onward; to make one's way.
[transitive verb] To cause or enable (a
person or thing) to go or proceed
somewhere; to carry, convey, or send,
esp. to convey across a river or land; to
transport. Usu. with preposition or
adverb of direction. intr. To go or be
transported from one place or set of
circumstances to (unto) or into another.
1
push the pedals of a bicycle round
with your feet. TFD: To use or operate
a pedal or pedals.To ride a bicycle.
MW: to ride a bicycle. to use or work
a pedal.
[intransitive verb] To push the pedals of
a bicycle or similar vehicle in a circular
motion with one's feet, so as to propel
oneself forward. [transitive verb] To
propel (a bicycle, etc.) by pushing
pedals with the feet; (also) to convey by
pedalling.
Latin penetratus, past participle of
penetrare, from penitus deep within,
far. [intransitive and transitive verb] to
move into or through something. TFD:
To pierce or enter into something;
make a way in or through
something.To enter or force a way
into; pierce. MW: to pass, extend,
pierce, or diffuse into or through
something. to pass into or through.
[transitive verb] To get into or through,
gain entrance or access to, esp. with
force, effort, or difficulty; to pierce.
[intransitive verb] Usu. with into,
through, to.
#
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
Vehicle /
Instrument
into G
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
340
English Motion
verb
perambulate
pirouette
plod
plummet
Motion AM
Transl
Self-c
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
Manner
Path + Manner
#
1
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] to walk about for
pleasure.
OLD
USE.
TFD:
[intransitive verb] To walk about;
roam or stroll. [transitive verb] To
mp-walk
walk through.To inspect (an area) on
foot. MW: [intransitive verb] to stroll.
[transitive verb] to travel over or
through especially on foot.
[intransitive verb] a fast turn of the
body on the toes or the front part of
Revolve, Rotate, the foot, performed especially by a
Spin
ballet dancer. TFD: [intransitive verb]
to perform a pirouette. MW:
[intransitive verb]
mp-walk; Rateslow; Forced
Motion (Energylow);
Characteristic
use of lower
body (Stepsheavy)
EarthRate-fast; Shape
based
2
of Path
orientation:
(straight)?
downwards
[intransitive verb] to walk taking slow
steps, as if your feet are heavy. TFD:
To move or walk heavily or
laboriously; trudge. MW: to walk
heavily or slowly. to proceed slowly
or tediously.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[transitive verb] To walk through, over,
or about (a place or space). In early use
more generally: to travel or pass
through, to traverse. [intransitive verb]
To walk, wander, or travel from place to
place; to move. Also with about, around.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To perform a
pirouette; to spin or walk on the points
of the toes; to move with a whirling
motion.
[intransitive verb] To walk heavily or
without elasticity; to move or progress
doggedly or laboriously; to trudge
(along, on, etc.).
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] to fall very quickly
and suddenly. TFD: To fall straight [intransitive verb] To drop or fall rapidly
down; plunge. MW: to fall or precipitously; to plunge down.
perpendicularly.
341
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
plunge
Transl
polka
Self-c
AM
Semantic
components
#
Path + Manner
2
Manner
1
pop
Transl
Manner
1
pounce
Transl
Path + Manner
2
Path
Details
Manner Details
(cause someone or something to)
move or fall suddenly and often a long
way forward, down or into something.
forward/
down/ into
TFD: To fall or throw oneself into a
Rate-fast; Forced
substance or place. To move forward
G;
Motion
to/towards
and downward violently. [transitive
verb] To thrust or throw forcefully
G
into a substance or place. MW:
[intransitive verb] to thrust or cast
oneself into or as if into water.
AS NOUN:a fast active dance that was
popular in the 19th century, or a piece
of music that can be used for this
Dance
dance. [intransitive verb] TFD: to
dance the polka. MW: [intransitive
verb]
and suddenly, especially from an
enclosed space. [intransitive verb] to
Rate-fast;
Sudden
go to a particular place. TFD: To
movement
move quickly or unexpectedly; appear
abruptly. MW: to go, come, or appear
suddenly —often used with up.
[intransitive verb] to jump or move
quickly in order to catch or take hold
of something. TFD: To spring or
to/towards
swoop with intent to seize someone or
Rate-fast
G
something. To attack suddenly. MW:
to swoop upon and seize something
with or as if with talons. to make a
sudden assault or approach.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To throw or hurl
oneself into water or the like; to dive; to
fall abruptly and involuntarily, esp. from
a great height, into a depth; to descend.
Also: to enter suddenly into or pass
rapidly through something which
surrounds one completely, as a forest, a
crowd, etc. Usu. with in, into, through.
[intransitive verb] To dance the polka.
[intransitive verb] To move or go
somewhere quickly or unexpectedly,
esp. for a short time. Usu. with in, off,
out, up, etc.
[intransitive verb] Of an animal, bird,
etc.: to spring or swoop suddenly so as
to catch (prey).
342
English Motion
verb
prance
promenade
pronk
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Self- c
/ Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
Manner
#
1
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
energetic way and with more
movement
than
necessary.
[intransitive verb] When a horse
prances it takes small, quick steps and
raises its legs higher than usual. TFD:
To spring forward on the hind legs.
State of the
Used of a horse. To spring or bound
Figure (proud)
forward in a manner reminiscent of a
spirited horse. To ride a horse moving
in such a fashion. To walk or move
about spiritedly; strut. MW: to spring
from the hind legs or move by so
doing. to ride on a prancing horse. to
walk or move in a spirited manner.
[intransitive verb] to walk slowly
along a road or path for relaxation and
pleasure. TFD: [intransitive verb] To
go on a leisurely walk. [transitive
mp-walk;
verb] To take a promenade along or
Leisurely
through. MW: [intransitive verb] to
Motion; State of
take or go on a promenade. [transitive
Figure (relaxed)
verb] to walk about in or on. As noun
= a place for strolling, a leisurely walk
or ride especially in a public place for
pleasure or display.
mp-jump;
Characteristic
use of lower
body (using all
legs)
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To dance, gambol,
caper. To move, walk, or behave in an
ostentatious or arrogant manner; to
swagger; to flounce. [intransitive verb]
Of a person: to ride a prancing horse; to mp-walk /
ride
proudly
or
ostentatiously. mp-jump
[intransitive verb] Of an animal, esp. a
horse: to rise by springing from the hind
legs; to move by a succession of such
springs.
[intransitive verb] To take a leisurely
walk (or a ride or drive), esp. in a public
place so as to meet or be seen by others.
[transitive verb] To make a promenade
through; to walk about (a place) in a
leisurely or ostentatious way.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] Of a springbok or
other antelope: to leap in the air with an
[intransitive verb] TFD: jump straight
arched back and stiff legs (using all four
up. MW: NOFOUND
legs simultaneously in the leap), esp. as
a form of display.
343
English Motion
verb
prowl
punt
pursue
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
AM?
Manner
Path
#
Path
Details
1
1
1
after G
Manner Details
move around quietly in a place trying
not to be seen or heard, such as when
hunting. LLA: to quietly walk around
an area or building, trying not to be
mp-walk; Furtive seen or heard. TFD: To rove furtively
Motion
or with predatory intent. To roam
through stealthily, as in search of prey
or plunder. MW: to move about or
wander stealthily in or as if in search
of prey. to roam over in a predatory
manner.
AS NOUN: a long narrow boat with a
flat bottom and a square area at each
end, which is moved by a person
standing on one of the square areas
and pushing a long pole against the
Vehicle /
bottom of the river. [intransitive verb]
Instrument
to travel in a punt. TFD: [transitive
verb] To propel (a boat) with a pole.
To carry in a punt. [intransitive verb]
To go in a punt. MW: [transitive verb]
to propel (as a punt) with a pole.
from Anglo-French pursure, pursiure,
from Latin prosequi, from proforward + sequi to follow. [transitive
verb] to follow someone or something,
usually to try to catch or kill them.
To follow in an effort to overtake or
capture; chase. MW: to follow in order
to overtake, capture, kill, or defeat. to
go in pursuit.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To go or move about,
esp. in search of or looking for
something; (hence) to roam or wander
about in search of plunder, prey, etc., or
with predatory intent; to move about,
around stealthily or restlessly.
mp-walk
[transitive verb] To propel (a punt or
other boat) by pushing against the bed of
a river, etc., with a pole; to propel in the
manner of a punt. To convey in a punt or
by punting. [intransitive verb] To push
with a punt pole; to propel a punt or
other boat in this way; to travel in a
punt.
To follow or go in pursuit (chiefly
involving
physical
movement).
[intransitive verb] To go in chase or
pursuit; to give chase. [transitive verb]
Originally: to follow (a person, animal,
or thing) with intent to overtake and
capture, harm, or kill; to hunt. Later usu.
more generally: to chase, go after.
344
English Motion
verb
quake
Motion AM
Self-c
Semantic
components
Manner
#
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
Shake, Swing,
Vibrate
quickstep
Self-c
Manner
1
Dance
quiver
Self-c
Manner
1
Shake, Swing,
Vibrate
race
Transl
AM
Manner
1
Rate-fast
[intransitive verb] to shake because
you are very frightened or very
amused, or to feel or show great fear.
TFD: To shake or tremble, as from
instability or shock.To shiver, as with
cold or from strong emotion. MW: to
shake or vibrate usually from shock or
instability. to tremble or shudder
usually from cold or fear
AS NOUN: a dance with a lot of quick
steps, or a piece of music for this.
TFD: perform a quickstep. MW: NO
[intransitive verb] to shake slightly,
often because of strong emotion.
TFD:To shake with a slight, rapid,
tremulous movement. MW: to shake
or move with a slight trembling
motion.
move or go fast. TFD: [intransitive
verb] to compete in a race. To move
rapidly or at top speed. [transitive
verb] To transport rapidly or at top
speed; rush. MW: [intransitive verb] to
compete in a race. to go, move, or
function at top speed or out of control.
[transitive verb] to transport or propel
at maximum speed.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] Of a thing, esp. the
earth: to shake or tremble as a result of
an external or internal impulse, natural
instability, etc.
[intransitive verb] To step quickly, esp.
to perform a quick step or quick march.
[intransitive verb] To dance the
quickstep.
[intransitive verb] To shake, tremble, or
vibrate, with a slight but rapid agitation.
(Said of persons, esp. under the
influence of some emotion, of things,
light, etc.) [transitive verb] To cause to
vibrate or tremble.
[intransitive verb] To run a race (with),
to compete (with) in speed. [intransitive
verb] To run, ride, sail, etc. swiftly.
[transitive verb] To race with; to try to
beat in running. To cause to move
swiftly or to make rapid progress; to
cause to run a race or races.
mp-run
345
English Motion
verb
raft
ramble
reach
recede
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
Transl
AM
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
#
Path
Details
1
1
Path
to/towards
1 G (arrival,
endpoint)
Path
away from
G
1
(departure,
source)
Manner Details
Vehicle /
Instrument
AS NOUN: a flat floating structure
for travelling across water, often made
of pieces of wood tied roughly
together and moved along with a
paddle (= pole with a flat end).
travel or transport something on a raft.
TFD: [transitive verb] to convey on a
raft. To make into a raft. [intransitive
verb]To travel by raft. MW: [transitive
verb] to transport in the form of or by
means of a raft. [intransitive verb] to
travel by raft.
[transitive verb] To transport by water:
in the form of a raft, on, or by means of,
a raft. To go upon or cross (a river) by
means of a raft. [intransitive verb] To
use a raft for some purpose; to work on
or direct a raft.
mp-walk; No
aim in Motion
[intransitive verb] to walk for
pleasure, especially in the countryside.
TFD: To move about aimlessly.To
walk about casually or for pleasure.
MW: to move aimlessly from place to
place. to wander over.
[intransitive verb] Of persons: To
wander, travel, make one's way about
(now usually to walk) in a free
unrestrained manner and without
definite aim or direction. [transitive
verb] To wander over. rare.
[transitive verb] to arrive at a place,
especially after spending a long time
or a lot of effort travelling. TFD: To
arrive at. To travel as far as. MW: to
arrive at or come to something.
from Latin recedere to go back, from
re- + cedere to go. [intransitive verb]
to move further away into the
distance, or to become less clear or
less bright. TFD:To move back or
away from a limit, point, or mark.
MW: to move back or away.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
mp-walk
[transitive verb] To come to, arrive at (a
place, object, or point in space), to get
up to or as far as.
[intransitive verb] To go back or further
off; to remove to or towards a more
distant position. Of persons. Usually =
to retreat, retire.
346
English Motion
verb
recline
Motion AM
Self-c
recoil
Transl
reel1
Self-c /
Transl
reel2
Self-c /
Transl
?
AM
Semantic
components
Manner
Path
AM
#
Path
Details
1
Manner Details
Posture (towards
horizontal; Bend;
backwards)
1 backwards
Manner
1
Unsteady Motion
Manner
1
Revolve, Rotate,
Spin
lean or lie back with the upper part of
your body in a nearly horizontal
position. TFD: [transitive verb] To
cause to assume a leaning or prone
position. [intransitive verb] to lie back
or down. MW: [transitive verb] to
cause or permit to incline backwards.
[intransitive verb] to lean or incline
backwards.
from Anglo-French reculer, recuiler,
from re- + cul backside [intransitive
verb] to move back because of fear or
disgust. TFD: To spring back, as upon
firing.To shrink back, as in fear or
repugnance. To fall back; return. MW:
to fall back under pressure. to shrink
back physically or emotionally. to
spring back to or as if to a starting
point .
[intransitive verb] to walk moving
from side to side, looking like you are
going to fall. TFD: To stagger, lurch,
or sway, as from drunkenness. MW: to
walk or move unsteadily.
[intransitive verb] If the place where
you are reels, what you are looking at
seems to go round and round in front
of you. TFD: To go round and round
in a whirling motion. [transitive verb]
To cause to reel. MW: to turn or move
round and round.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] Of persons or parts of
the body: To rest in a recumbent or
inclined position, lean or repose on or
upon something. [transitive verb] To lay
down, or make to lie down (properly on
the back); to cause to incline
(backwards); to place in a recumbent or
leaning position; to rest (the head, etc.)
in this way.
[intransitive verb] To retreat, retire, go
or draw back (or aback) before an
enemy or opposing force. To stagger
back, from the effects of a blow. To start
or spring back in fear, horror, disgust, or
the like.
[intransitive verb] Of persons (or
animals): To sway or stagger as the
result of a blow or encounter. Often with
back, backward.
mp-walk /
mp-run
[intransitive verb] To whirl round or
about; to go with a whirling motion.
[transitive verb] To cause to roll, whirl.
347
English Motion
verb
retire
retreat
return
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
AM
AM?
AM
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
Path
away from
G
1
(departure,
source)
Path
away from
G
1
(departure,
source)
Path
1
back to G
Manner Details
Middle French retirer, from re- + tirer
to draw. [intransitive verb] FORMAL
to leave a room or group of people and
go somewhere quiet or private. TFD:
To withdraw, as for rest or
seclusion.To move back or away;
recede. [transitive verb] To lead
(troops, for example) away from
action; withdraw. MW: to withdraw
from action or danger. to withdraw
especially for privacy. to move back.
[transitive verb] to march (a military
force) away from the enemy.
From Anglo-French retrait, from past
participle of retraire to withdraw, from
Latin retrahere, from re- + trahere to
draw . [intransitive verb] to go away
from a place or person in order to
escape from fighting or danger. TFD:
To fall or draw back; withdraw or
retire. MW: to make a retreat:
withdraw. [transitive verb] to draw or
lead back: remove.
From Anglo-French returner, from re+ turner, tourner to turn [intransitive
verb] to come or go back to a previous
place. TFD: [intransitive verb]To go
or come back, as to an earlier
condition or place. [transitive verb] To
send, put, or carry back. MW: to go
back or come back again. [transitive
verb] to bring, send, or put back to a
former or proper place.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To withdraw to or
into a place (or way of life) for the sake
of seclusion, shelter, or security.
[transitive verb] To withdraw, lead back
(troops, etc.), esp. before a superior
force.
[intransitive verb] To withdraw, retire,
draw back. Of an army or a combatant:
To retire before superior force or after a
defeat. [transitive verb] To draw or lead
back; to remove, take away.
[intransitive verb] To come or go back
to a place or person. [transitive verb] To
bring or convey back to a place or
person
348
English Motion
verb
revolve
rickshaw
ride
rise1
Motion AM
Self-c
Transl
Transl
Transl
AM
NO
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
Manner
Path
#
Path
Details
1
1
1
Earthbased
1
orientation:
upwards
Manner Details
move or cause something to move
round a central point or line. TFD: To
orbit a central point. To turn on an
axis; rotate. To cause to revolve. MW:
Revolve, Rotate,
Middle English, from Latin revolvere
Spin
to roll back, cause to return, from re- +
volvere to roll. to move in a curved
path round a center or axis b: to turn
or roll round on an axis. to cause to go
round in an orbit.
Vehicle /
Instrument
AS NOUN: a small covered passenger
vehicle with two wheels which is
usually pulled by one person. TFD,
MW: AS NOUN.
Vehicle /
Instrument
(horse, bike,
vehicle)
[intransitive and transitive verb] to sit
on a horse or a bicycle and travel
along on it controlling its movements.
TFD: To be carried or conveyed, as in
a vehicle or on horseback. To sit on
and move in a given direction. MW: to
sit and travel on the back of an animal
that one directs. to travel in or on a
conveyance. to travel on.
[intransitive verb] to move upwards.
from a lower to a higher position;
ascend. MW: To move upward:
ascend.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To perform a circular
motion; to move in a regular orbit about
or round a fixed point. [transitive verb]
To cause (something) to travel in an
orbit around a central point; to rotate
(something) upon an axis.
AS NOUN: jinricksha: A light twowheeled hooded vehicle having springs
and two shafts, drawn by one or more
men. First used in Japan c1870, but now
common in other parts of the world;
colloq.
shortened
to
rickshaw.
[intransitive verb]
to ride in a
jinricksha.
[intransitive verb] To sit upon, and be
carried by, a horse or other animal; to
move about, make one's way, or journey
upon horseback (or, in mod. use, on a
cycle). To sit or be carried on or upon
something after the manner of one on
horseback. [transitive verb] To sit or be
carried upon, to go or travel upon (a
horse, or other animal of burden); to
manage or control while seated on. To
travel in or on (a train, public transport
vehicle, etc.), to be a passenger on.
[intransitive verb] To ascend, mount up.
Of the heavenly bodies: To come above
the horizon. Of smoke, vapour, or the
like: To ascend into the air, mount up.
To move or be carried upwards; to
ascend.
349
English Motion
verb
rise2
Motion AM
Self-c
Semantic
components
Manner
#
1
roam
Transl
Manner
1
roar
Transl
Manner
1
rock
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] to stand, especially
after sitting. TFD: To assume a
standing position after lying, sitting, or
Posture (verticalkneeling. MW: to assume an upright
upwards)
position especially from lying,
kneeling, or sitting. to get up from
sleep or from one's bed
move about or travel, especially
without a clear idea of what you are
going to do. LLA: to walk round
mp-walk; No
freely with no particular aim. TFD: To
aim in motion move about without purpose or plan;
wander. To wander over or through.
MW: to go from place to place
without purpose or direction : wander.
to range or wander over.
[intransitive verb] If a vehicle or
aircraft roars somewhere, it moves
Rate-fast; Noisy there very quickly making a lot of
Activity
noise. TFD: NO FOUND AS
MOTION VERB. MW: to proceed or
rush with great noise or commotion.
(cause someone or something to)
move backwards and forwards or from
side to side in a regular way. TFD:
move back and forth or sideways.
Shake, Swing, [transitive verb] to cause to move back
Vibrate
and forth. MW: To become moved
backward and forward under often
violent impact. to move gently back
and forth. to move back and forth in or
as if in a cradle. [transitive verb] to
cause to sway back and forth.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To get up from
sitting, lying, or repose. To get up from
a sitting, kneeling, or lying posture; to
assume a standing position; to get upon
one's feet.
[intransitive verb] To wander, rove, or
ramble; to walk about aimlessly, esp.
over a wide area. [transitive verb] To
wander over or through (a place).
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To travel on a vehicle
which is making a loud noise; to motor
rapidly.
[intransitive verb] To sway to and fro
under some impact or stress; to move or
swing from side to side; to oscillate.
[transitive verb] To move (a child)
gently to and fro in a cradle, in order to
soothe or send it to sleep.To move or
sway (one) to and fro, esp. in a gentle or
soothing manner. To cause to sway to
and fro or from side to side; to move
backwards and forwards.
350
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
rocket1
Transl
rocket2
Transl
roll
Self-c
/Transl
AM
Semantic
components
Manner
Path + Manner
AM
Manner
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
AS NOUN: a large cylindrical object
which moves very fast by forcing out
burning gases, and which is used for
space travel or as a weapon. TFD:
Vehicle /
1
Instrument
soar or rise rapidly. To carry by means
of a rocket. MW: [transitive verb] to
convey or propel by means of or as if
by a rocket. [intransitive verb] to
travel rapidly in or as if in a rocket.
Earthswiftly and powerfully, as a rocket. to
based
2
Rate-fast
soar or rise rapidly. MW: [intransitive
orientation:
verb] to rise up swiftly, spectacularly,
upwards
and with force.
(cause to) move somewhere by turning
over and over or from side to side. To
(cause something to) turn over onto
itself to form a cylinder or a sphere.
TFD: To move forward along a
surface by revolving on an axis or by
repeatedly turning over.To travel or be
moved on wheels or rollers. To cause
Revolve, Rotate, to move forward along a surface by
1
Spin
revolving on an axis or by repeatedly
turning over.To move or push along
on wheels or rollers MW: to move
along a surface by rotation without
sliding. to turn over and over. to impel
forward by causing to turn over and
over on a surface. to cause to revolve
by turning over and over on or as if on
an axis. to cause to move in a circular
manner.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[transitive verb] To propel (someone) at
speed, as by a rocket; to send by rocket.
[intransitive verb] In general use: to
move like a rocket, to speed.
[Intransitive verb] To move by revolving
or rotating on (or as on) an axis; to move
forward on a surface by turning over and
over. Of vehicles: To move or run on
wheels. [transitive verb] To move or
impel forward (an object) on a surface
by making it turn over and over; to shift
about, to send down to a lower level,
etc., in this manner. To drive or draw (a
vehicle); to wheel (a cycle); to move by
means of rollers. To convey in a
wheeled vehicle.
351
English Motion
verb
rollerblade
romp
rotate
rove
Motion AM
Transl
NO
Transl
Self-c
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
AM
Manner
Manner
#
1
1
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
AS NOUN: one of two boots with a
single row of small wheels on the
bottom which you wear in order to
travel along quickly for enjoyment.
Vehicle /
[intransitive verb] to move on a
Instrument
surface, using Rollerblades. TFD:
[intransitive verb] travel on shoes with
a single line of rubber wheels attached
to their soles. MW: no found as
motion verb.
[intransitive verb] to play in a rough,
excited and noisy way. TFD: To play
or frolic boisterously. To run or
advance in a rapid or easy manner.
Playful Motion
MW: to run or play in a lively,
carefree, or boisterous manner. to
move or proceed in a brisk, easy, or
playful manner.
(cause to) turn in a circle, especially
around a fixed point. TFD: To turn
Revolve, Rotate, around on an axis or center. To cause
Spin
to turn on an axis or center. MW: to
turn about an axis or a center :
revolve. to cause to turn or move
about an axis or a center.
[intransitive verb] to move, travel or
look around especially a large area.
TFD: To wander about at random,
mp-walk; No
especially over a wide area; roam. To
aim in motion
roam or wander around, over, or
through. MW: to move aimlessly. to
wander through or over.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] to roller-skate using
skates of this type
Low
[intransitive verb] To play, sport, or ratings.
frolic in a very lively, merry, or
No
boisterous manner.
significant
difference
[intransitive verb] To move round a
centre or axis; to perform one or more
revolutions. [transitive verb] To cause (a
thing) to turn round or revolve on a
centre or axis.
[intransitive verb] To wander about with
no fixed destination; to move hither and
thither at random or in a leisurely
fashion; to stray, roam, ramble.
mp-walk
352
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
row
Transl
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
rumba
Self-c
Manner
1
Dance
run
rush
Transl
Transl
Manner
AM
Manner
1
1
mp-run
Rate-fast
cause a boat to move through water by
pushing against the water with oars.
TFD: To propel a boat with or as if
with oars. To propel (a boat) with or
as
if
with
oars.
To carry in or on a boat propelled by
oars. MW: to propel a boat by means
of oars. to propel with or as if with
oars. to transport in an oar-propelled
boat.
AS NOUN: a type of dancing,
originally from Cuba, or the music for
this. TFD: dance the rhumba. MW:
NO FOUND AS MOTION VERB
[intransitive and transitive verb] (of
people and some animals) to move
along, faster than walking, by taking
quick steps in which each foot is lifted
before the next foot touches the
ground. TFD: To move swiftly on foot
so that both feet leave the ground
during each stride. MW: to go faster
than a walk; specifically : to go
steadily by springing steps so that both
feet leave the ground for an instant in
each step.
(cause to) go or do something very
quickly. TFD: To move or act swiftly;
hurry.To cause to move or act with
unusual haste or violence. MW: to
move forward, progress, or act with
haste or eagerness or without
preparation. to push or impel on or
forward with speed, impetuosity, or
violence.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] Of persons: To use
oars, sweeps, or similar means, for the
purpose of propelling a boat or other
vessel.
[intransitive verb] To dance the rumba.
Also, to move as though dancing the
rumba.
[intransitive verb] To move the legs
quickly (the one foot being lifted before
the other is set down) so as to go at a
faster pace than walking; to cover the
ground, make one's way, rapidly in this
manner.
[intransitive verb] Of persons or
animals: To run, dash, or charge with
violence
or
impetuous
rapidity.
[transitive verb] To cause to move with
great speed and force; to send or impel
violently.
mprun/mpwalk
353
English Motion
verb
sail
samba
sashay
Motion AM
Transl
Self-c
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
Manner
#
1
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
Vehicle /
Instrument
[intransitive verb] When a boat or a
ship sails, it travels on the water. To
control a boat that has no engine and is
pushed by the wind. TFD: To move
across the surface of water, especially
by means of a sailing vessel. To
navigate or manage (a vessel). MW: to
travel on water by the action of wind
upon sails or by other means. to travel
on (water) by means of motive power
(as sail).
[intransitive verb] Of persons: To travel
on water in a vessel propelled by the
action of the wind upon sails; now often
in extended sense, to travel on water in a
vessel propelled by any means other
than oars; to navigate a vessel in a
specified direction. Of a ship or other
vessel: To move or travel on water by
means of sails, or (in modern use) by
means of steam or any other mechanical
agency. [transitive verb] Of persons,
also of a vessel: To sail over or upon, to
navigate (the sea, a river, etc.). Now
somewhat arch.
AS NOUN: an energetic dance
originally from Brazil, or music for
Dance
dancing this dance. [intransitive verb]
TFD: to perform this dance. MW:
[intransitive verb]
[intransitive verb] to walk confidently
while moving your hips from side to
side in a way that attracts attention.
TFD: To walk or proceed, especially
in an easy or casual manner.To strut or
mp-walk; State flounce in a showy manner.
To
of Figure (proud) perform the chassé in dancing. To
move in a sideways manner. MW: to
make a chassé. To strut or move about
in an ostentatious or conspicuous
manner. to proceed or move in a
diagonal or sideways manner.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To dance the samba.
[intransitive verb] To perform a chassé,
esp. in square dancing; freq. transf., to
perform a movement similar to the
chassé. To glide, walk, or travel, usu. in
a casual manner. To move diagonally or
sideways; to travel an irregular path; to
wander or saunter. To move or walk
ostentatiously,
conspicuously,
or
provocatively; to strut or parade.
mp-walk
354
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
Semantic
components
saunter
Transl
Manner
scale
Transl
Path
scamper
Transl
Manner
scatter
Transl
scoot
Transl
AM
#
Path
Details
1
1 up / onto G
1
Path
1
Manner
1
Multiple
directions
from a
unique
start
Manner Details
and relaxed way, often in no particular
mp-walk;
direction. LLA: To walk in a slow and
Leisurely
lazy way, often when you should be
Motion; State of
hurrying to do something. TFD: To
the Figure
walk at a leisurely pace; stroll. MW: to
(relaxed)
walk about in an idle or leisurely
manner : stroll.
from Late Latin scala ladder, staircase,
from Latin scalae, plural, stairs, rungs,
ladder; akin to Latin scandere to climb
[transitive verb] to climb up a steep
surface, such as a wall or the side of a
mountain,
often
using
special
equipment. TFD: To climb; ascend.
To climb up or over; ascend. MW: to
climb by or as if by a ladder.
[intransitive verb] When small
children and animals scamper, they
mp-run; Playful
run with small quick steps, in a playful
Motion;
or frightened way. LLA: To run with
Characteristic
short quick steps, especially when
use of lower
running in a group and often in a
body (Stepsplayful way. TFD: To run or go
small)?
quickly and lightly. MW: to run
nimbly and usually playfully about.
(cause to) move far apart in different
directions. TFD: To separate and go in
different directions; disperse.To cause
to separate and go in different
directions. MW: to separate and go in
various directions : disperse. to cause
to separate widely.
[intransitive verb] INFORMAL to go
Rate-fast
quickly. TFD: To go suddenly and
speedily; hurry. MW: to move swiftly.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To walk with a
leisurely and careless gait; to stroll.
Also, to travel by vehicle in a slow and
leisurely manner.
mp-walk
[transitive verb] To climb, get over (a
wall or the like); to ascend (a mountain);
to get to or reach the top of.
[intransitive verb] To run or caper about
nimbly; to go or journey hastily from
place to place.
mp-run /
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To separate and
disperse; to go dispersedly or
stragglingly. [transitive verb] To
separate and drive in various directions
(a body of men or animals, a collection
of things); to disperse, dissipate (a
quantity of matter); to dispel (clouds,
mists).
[intransitive verb] To go suddenly and
swiftly, to dart; to go away hurriedly.
mp-run /
mp-walk
355
English Motion
verb
scram
scramble
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Path + Manner
Manner
#
Path
Details
away from
G
2
(departure,
source)
1
scud
Transl
Manner
1
scurry
Transl
Manner
1
scuttle
Transl
Manner
1
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] INFORMAL to go
away quickly. TFD: To leave a scene
Rate-fast
at once; go abruptly. MW: to go away
at once.
[intransitive verb] to move or climb
quickly but with difficulty, often using
Rate-fast; Forced
your hands to help you. TFD:
Motion (energy[intransitive verb] To move or climb
high); Use of
hurriedly, especially on the hands and
one's hands and
knees. MW: to move with urgency or
legs
panic. To move or climb hastily on all
fours.
[intransitive verb] (especially of
clouds and ships) to move quickly and
without stopping in a straight line.
Rate-fast;
TFD: [intransitive verb] To run or
Smooth Motion?
skim along swiftly and easily. MW: to
move or run swiftly especially as if
driven forward.
[intransitive verb] to move quickly,
with small short steps. LLA: To run
with short quick steps, especially
Rate-fast;
when you need to move quickly to
Characteristic
escape from danger. TFD: To go with
use of lower
light running steps; scamper. MW: to
body (Stepsmove in or as if in a brisk pace :
short)?
scamper. to move around in an
agitated, confused, or fluttering
manner.
[intransitive verb] to move quickly,
with small short steps, especially in
Rate-fast;
order to escape. LLA: To run with
Characteristic
short quick steps, especially to escape
use of lower
from something- use this especially
body (Stepsabout small animals. TFD: To move
short)?
about or proceed hurriedly. MW:
scurry.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To depart quickly.
[intransitive verb] To raise oneself to an
erect posture, to get through or into a
place or position, by the struggling use
of the hands and feet; hence, to make
one's way by clambering, crawling,
jumping, etc. over difficult ground or
through obstructions.
Low
[intransitive verb] To run or move ratings.
briskly or hurriedly; to dart nimbly from
No
place to place.
significant
difference
[intransitive verb] To go rapidly, move
hurriedly.
mp-run
[intransitive verb] To run with quick,
hurried steps.
mp-run /
mp-walk
356
English Motion
verb
seesaw
shadow
shake
Motion AM
Self-c
Manner
Transl
Self-c
Semantic
components
Path
AM
Manner
#
Path
Details
Vehicle /
Instrument
(seesaw)
1
1
1
Manner Details
after G
Shake, Swing,
Vibrate
AS NOUN: a long board that children
play on. The board is balanced on a
central point so that when a child sits
on each end they can make the board
go up and down by pushing off the
ground with their fee. [intransitive
verb] TFD: To play on a seesaw. MW:
[intransitive verb] to move backward
and forward or up and down. to play at
seesaw
[transitive verb] to follow closely.
TFD: To follow, especially in secret;
trail. MW: to follow especially
secretly : trail.
move backwards and forwards or up
and down in quick, short movements,
or to make something or someone do
this. TFD: To move to and fro in
short,
irregular,
often
jerky
movements. To tremble, as from cold
or in anger. To cause to move to and
fro with jerky movements.To cause to
quiver, tremble, vibrate, or rock. MW:
to move irregularly to and fro. to
vibrate especially as the result of a
blow or shock. to tremble as a result of
physical or emotional disturbance. to
cause to move to and fro, up and
down, or from side to side especially
in a repetitive, rhythmic, or quick
jerky manner.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
down, or backwards and forwards; to
undergo a see-saw motion; also to play
see-saw.
[transitive verb] To follow (a person)
like a shadow; in mod. journalistic
language said of a detective who dogs
the steps of a person under surveillance.
[intransitive verb] Of things having
more or less freedom of movement: To
move irregularly and quickly to and fro,
up and down, or from side to side; to
quiver, quake, vibrate, waver. [transitive
verb] To cause to vibrate, agitate.
357
English Motion
verb
shamble
Motion AM
Transl
ship
Transl
shiver
Self-c
shoot
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
AM
#
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
mp-walk; Rateslow; Awkward
Motion;
Unsteady
Motion?
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
Manner
1
Shake, Swing,
Vibrate
Manner
1
Rate-fast
[intransitive verb] to walk slowly and
awkwardly, without lifting your feet
correctly. LLA: To walk slowly and
rather awkwardly, bending forwards in
a tired or lazy way. TFD: To walk in
an awkward, lazy, or unsteady
manner, shuffling the feet. MW: To
walk awkwardly with dragging feet :
shuffle.
[transitive verb] to send something,
usually a large object or a large
quantity of objects or people, to a
distant place. TFD: [intransitive and
transitive verb] To travel by ship. To
cause to be transported by or as if by
ship. MW: [intransitive verb] to
embark on a ship. to go or travel by
ship. [transitive verb] to place or
receive on board a ship for
transportation by water. to cause to be
transported.
[intransitive verb] When people or
animals shiver, they shake slightly
because they feel cold, ill or
frightened. TFD: To shake with or as
if with cold; tremble. MW: to undergo
trembling : quiver.
[intransitive verb] to move in a
particular direction very quickly and
directly. TFD: To move swiftly; dart.
MW: o go or pass rapidly and
precipitately.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To go with an
awkward ungainly gait, to walk
awkwardly or unsteadily.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To go by ship to, into,
or from a place. [transitive verb] To put
or take (persons or things) on board
ship; to cause (a person) to embark; to
place (goods) in a ship for
transportation.
[intransitive verb] To tremble, shake,
quiver; esp. to tremble with cold or fear.
[intransitive verb] To go swiftly and
suddenly. Of an inanimate thing (or of a
Low
living being moving involuntarily): To ratings.
go or pass with a sudden swift
No
movement through space; to rush, be significant
precipitated; to fly as an arrow from a difference
bow.
358
English Motion
verb
shudder
shuffle
shuttle
Motion AM
Self-c
Manner
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
AM
Manner
#
1
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] to shake suddenly
with very small movements because of
a very unpleasant thought or feeling.
Shake, Swing,
TFD: To shiver convulsively, as from
Vibrate
fear or revulsion. To vibrate; quiver.
MW: to tremble convulsively : shiver,
quiver.
[intransitive verb] to walk by pulling
your feet slowly along the ground
rather than lifting them. LLA: To walk
mp-walk; Rate- slowly and noisily, without lifting
your feet off the ground properly.
slow;
Characteristic TFD: To move with short sliding
steps, without or barely lifting the
use of lower
body (contact
feet.To slide (the feet) along the floor
feet and ground); or ground while walking. MW: to
Noisy Motion? move or walk in a sliding dragging
manner without lifting the feet. to
move (as the feet) by sliding along or
back and forth without lifting.
travel or take people regularly
between the same two places. TFD:
[intransitive verb] To go, move, or
travel back and forth by or as if by a
shuttle. [transitive verb] To transport
Vehicle /
by or as if by a shuttle. MW:
Instrument
[transitive verb] to cause to move or
travel back and forth frequently. to
transport in, by, or as if by a shuttle.
[intransitive verb] to move or travel
back and forth frequently. to move by
or as if by a shuttle.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To have a convulsive
tremor of the body caused by fear,
abhorrence, or cold; hence, to tremble
with horror or dread.
[intransitive verb] To move the feet
along the ground without lifting them, so
as to make a scraping noise; to walk
with such a motion of the feet; to go
with clumsy steps or a shambling gait;
also said of the feet.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To go or move
backwards and forwards like a shuttle;
to travel quickly to and fro. Also, to
travel in one direction using a shuttle
service. [transitive verb] To transport in
a vehicle or craft operating a shuttle
service.
359
English Motion
verb
sidle
sink
skate
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
AM
NO
Path
Manner
Manner Details
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
Furtive Motion;
mp-walk?
[intransitive verb] to walk towards or
away from someone, trying not to be
noticed. TFD: To advance in an
unobtrusive, furtive, or coy way. MW:
to go or move with one side foremost
especially in a furtive advance.
[intransitive verb] To move or go
sideways or obliquely; to edge along,
esp. in a furtive or unobtrusive manner,
or while looking in another direction; to
make advances in this manner.
mp-walk
1 downwards
from Old English sincan. [intransitive
and transitive verb] to (cause
something or someone to) go down
below the surface or to the bottom of a
liquid or soft substance. TFD: To
descend to the bottom; submerge.To
fall or drop to a lower level, especially
to go down slowly or in stage. To
cause to descend beneath a surface:
sink a ship.To cause to drop or lower.
MW: to go to the bottom. to fall or
drop to a lower place or level. to cause
to sink.
[intransitive
verb]
To
become
submerged in water; to go under or to
the bottom; (of ships) to founder. To
become partly or completely submerged
in quicksand, marshy ground, snow, etc.
To subside or go down into, to be
swallowed up by, the earth, etc.
[transitive verb] To cause (a vessel, etc.)
to plunge or go down beneath the water;
to submerge by rendering incapable of
floating. To submerge; to put or thrust
under water. To cause (a thing) to
descend or fall to a lower plane or level;
to force, press, or weigh down in any
way.
1
AS NOUN: a special boot with a thin
metal bar fixed to the bottom that you
wear to move quickly on ice, or a boot
with four small wheels fixed to the
bottom so that you can move over a
[intransitive verb] To glide over ice
hard surface. [intransitive and
upon skates; to use skates as a means of
transitive verb] to move, or make a
exercise or pastime.
particular movement on a surface,
using skates. MW: [intransitive and
transitive verb] to glide along on
skates propelled by the alternate action
of the legs.
#
Path
Details
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
360
English Motion
verb
skateboard
skedaddle
ski
skid
Motion AM
Transl
NO
Transl
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
Path + Manner
NO
Manner
Manner
#
Path
Details
1
away from
2
G
1
1
Manner Details
Vehicle /
Instrument
Rate-fast
Vehicle /
Instrument
AS NOUN: a flat narrow board with
two small wheels under each end,
which a person stands on and moves
forward by pushing one foot on the [intransitive verb]
ground. [intransitive verb] TFD: To skateboard.
ride or perform stunts on a skateboard.
MW: [intransitive verb] to ride or
perform stunts on a skateboard.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
to ride on a
[intransitive verb] INFORMAL to run
[intransitive verb] In general use: To go
away quickly. TFD: To leave hastily;
mp-walk /
away, leave, or depart hurriedly; to run
flee. MW: run away, scram; especially
mp-run
away, ‘clear out’.
: to flee in a panic.
move over snow on skis. TFD:
[intransitive and transitive verb] To [intransitive verb] To travel on skis.
travel or glide on skis, especially as a [transitive verb] To travel over (a slope,
sport. MW: [intransitive and transitive etc.) on skis; to ski at (a place).
verb] to glide on skis in travel or as a
sport. to travel or pass over on skis.
[intransitive verb] to slide along a
surface so that you have no control.
Contact
TFD: To slide sideways while moving
[between F and because of loss of traction. To slide
G]; Uncontrolled without revolving. MW: to slide
Motion
without rotating (as a wheel held from
turning while a vehicle moves
onward). To fail to grip the roadway.
[intransitive verb] Of a wheel: To slip or
be dragged along without revolving, esp.
as the effect of having a skid or brake
applied to it. To slip obliquely or
sideways, esp. owing to the muddy, wet,
or dusty state of the road; to side-slip.
Usually said of cycle or motor-car
wheels, but also of horse-vehicles or
persons. Also, of the vehicle itself.
361
English Motion
verb
skim
skip
skitter
skulk
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
Manner
Manner
#
1
1
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
Contact
[between F and
Ground]: slight
contact; Ratefast
move quickly just above a surface
without touching it. TFD: To move or
pass swiftly and lightly over or near a
surface; glide. MW: to pass lightly or
hastily : glide or skip along, above, or
near a surface.
[intransitive verb][intransitive verb] To
sail, glide, float, fly, run, etc., with a
light and easy motion, on or close to
some surface, or through the air.
[transitive verb] To move, glide, fly or
float, lightly and rapidly over or along
(the ground, etc.). To pass over (a
surface) with close approach or very
slight contact.
[intransitive verb] to move lightly and
quickly, making a small jump after
mp-jump;
each step. LLA: If someone,
Characteristic
especially a child, skips along, they
use of lower
move along with a little jump between
body (jump after their steps. TFD: To move by hopping
each step);
on one foot and then the other.To leap
Instrument
lightly about. MW: To move or
(rope)
proceed with leaps and bounds or with
a skip (= a gait composed of
alternating hops and steps)
small animal, bird or insect) to move
Contact
[between F and very quickly and lightly. TFD: To
Ground]: slight move rapidly along a surface, usually
contact; Rate- with frequent light contacts or changes
of direction. MW: to glide or skip
fast
lightly or quickly.
Furtive Motion
[intransitive verb] To raise oneself off
the ground by a light and graceful
movement; to spring or leap lightly and
easily, spec. in the exercise of skipping
with a rope. To spring or leap lightly in
a certain direction or to a certain point;
to move or advance by a skip or skips.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
mp-jump
[intransitive verb] To move or run
rapidly; to hurry about; to scamper off. mp-walk /
To skip or skim along a surface, with mp-run
occasional rapid contact.
[intransitive verb] to hide or move
around as if trying not to be seen, [intransitive verb] To move in a stealthy
usually with bad intention. TFD: To or sneaking fashion, so as to escape
move about stealthily. MW: to move notice.
in a stealthy or furtive manner.
362
English Motion
verb
skydive
Motion AM
Transl
sledge (UK); sled
(US); sleigh
Transl
sleepwak
Transl
AM
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
AS NOUN: a sport in which a person
jumps from an aircraft and falls for as
long as possible before opening a
Earthparachute. TFD: To jump and fall
based
Ground (on air)
mp-jump;
3
freely from an airplane, performing
+ Path + Manner
orientation: Motion in sports
various maneuvers before pulling the
downwards
ripcord of a parachute. MW:
[intransitive verb] no definition is
provided.
AS NOUN:an object used for
travelling over snow and ice which has
long narrow strips of wood or metal
under it instead of wheels, and which
is either a low frame, or (also sleigh) a
carriage-like vehicle pulled by horses
or dogs; a type of sledge pulled by
Vehicle /
animals, especially horses or dogs.
Manner
1
Instrument
ride or travel on snow using a sledge.
TFD: [intransitive and transitive verb]
To convey or travel on a sledge. MW:
[intransitive verb] to travel with a
sledge. British : to ride in a sleigh.
[transitive verb] to transport on a
sledge.
[intransitive verb] a person who gets
out of bed and walks around while
mp-walk; State
they are sleeping. TFD: To walk or
Manner
1
of the Figure
perform other motor acts while asleep;
(slept)
somnambulate. MW: to walk while or
as if while asleep.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] No definition is
provided.
[intransitive verb] To travel in a sledge.
[transitive verb] To carry or convey on a
sledge. [intransitive verb] To travel in a
sledge. [transitive verb] To convey on a
sled or sleds. [intransitive verb] To
travel or ride in a sleigh.
[intransitive verb] To walk while asleep;
to be in a state resembling that of a
sleep-walker.
363
English Motion
verb
slide
slink
slip1 [slide]
slip2
slither
Motion AM
Transl
AM
Transl
Manner
Path + Manner
Transl
Manner
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
AM
Manner
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
1
Contact
[between F and
G]: Smooth
Motion
away from
G
2
(departure,
source)
Furtive Motion
1
Contact
[between F and
G]: Smooth
Motion;
Uncontrolled
Motion
(cause to) move easily and without
interruption over a surface. TFD: To
move over a surface while maintaining
smooth continuous contact. to cause to
glide or slip. MW: to move smoothly
along a surface : slip. to cause to glide
or slip
[intransitive verb] to walk away from
somewhere quietly so that you are not
noticed. TFD: To move in a quiet
furtive manner; sneak. MW: to go or
move stealthily or furtively.
[intransitive
verb]
to
slide
unintentionally. TFD: [intransitive
verb] To slide involuntarily and lose
one's balance or foothold. [transitive
verb] To cause to move in a smooth,
easy, or sliding motion. MW: to move
with a smooth sliding motion.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb]To pass from one
place or point to another with a smooth
and continuous movement, esp. through
the air or water or along a surface.
[transitive verb] To cause to move with
a smooth, gliding motion; to push over a
level surface.
mp-walk
animals: To move, go, walk, etc. in a
quiet, stealthy, or sneaking manner.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To slide or glide, esp.
on a smooth or slippery surface; to lose
one's foothold.
1
Furtive Motion
[intransitive verb] To pass or go lightly
or quietly; to move quickly and softly,
without attracting notice; to glide or
smoothly, easily, and quietly. To move
steal. Used with various advs. and preps.
stealthily; steal. MW: to move quietly
In some cases the prominent idea is that
and cautiously.
of escape; more usually it is that of
quick, easy motion.
1
Contact
[between F and
G]: Smooth
Motion; Pathshape
[intransitive verb] to move easily and
quickly across a surface while twisting
or curving. TFD: [intransitive verb] To
glide or slide like a reptile. To walk
with a sliding or shuffling gait. To slip
and slide, as on a loose or uneven
surface.
[intransitive verb] To slip, slide, glide,
esp. on a loose or broken slope or with a
clattering noise. [transitive verb] To
make or cause to slide. Of reptiles: To
creep, crawl, glide.
364
English Motion
verb
slog
slouch
sneak
soar
Motion AM
Transl
Self-c /
Transl
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
Manner
Path + Manner
#
1
1
1
2
Path
Details
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] to travel or move
with difficulty, for example through
mp-walk; Forced
wet, sticky soil or snow, or when you
Motion (Energyare very tired. TFD: To walk or
low)
progress with a slow heavy pace; plod.
MW: To plod heavily : tramp.
[intransitive verb] to stand, sit or walk
with the shoulders hanging forward
and the head bent slightly over so that
you look tired and bored. TFD:
[intransitive verb] To sit, stand, or
Posture (Bend)
walk with an awkward, drooping,
excessively relaxed posture. MW: to
walk, stand, or sit with a slouch :
assume a slouch. to go or move slowly
or reluctantly.
somewhere secretly, or to take
someone or something somewhere
secretly. LLA: To walk quietly so that
Furtive Motion;
no-one notices you, especially because
mp-walk?
you are doing something wrong and
do not want to be caught. TFD: To go
or move in a quiet, stealthy way. MW:
to go stealthily or furtively : slink.
[intransitive verb] to rise very quickly
to a high level; to rise high in the air
while flying without moving the wings
Earthor using power. TFD: To rise, fly, or
based
Rate-fast
glide high and with little apparent
orientation:
effort. To climb swiftly or powerfully.
upwards
To ascend suddenly above the normal
or usual level. MW: to ascend to a
higher or more exalted level.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
Low
[intransitive verb] To walk heavily or ratings.
doggedly [i.e., very determined to do
No
significant
something, even if it is very difficult].
difference
[intransitive verb] To move or walk with
Low
a slouch or in a loose and stooping ratings.
attitude.To carry oneself with a slouch
No
or stoop; to droop the head and significant
shoulders.
difference
[intransitive verb]To move, go, walk,
etc., in a stealthy or slinking manner; to
creep or steal furtively, as if ashamed or
afraid to be seen; to slink, skulk.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] Of birds: To fly or
mount upwards; to ascend to a towering
height; also loosely, to sail or skim at a
great height. Occas. with up. Of
inanimate objects: To ascend, rise up to
a height. [transitive verb] To cause to
soar.
365
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
Semantic
components
#
somersault
Self-c
Manner
1
somnambulate
Transl
Manner
1
speed
spin
spring
Transl
Self-c
Transl
AM
AM
Manner
Manner
Manner
1
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
AS NOUN: a rolling movement or
jump, either forwards or backwards, in
which you turn over completely, with
your body above your head, and finish
with your head on top again. An
mp-jump;
acrobatic stunt in which the body rolls
Revolve, Rotate,
forward or backward in a complete
Spin (turn over)
revolution with the knees bent and the
feet coming over the head. TFD:
[intransitive verb] To execute a
somersault. MW: [intransitive verb]
no definition is provided.
[intransitive verb] TFD: To walk or
mp-walk; State
perform another act while asleep or in
of the Figure
a sleeplike condition. MW: to walk
(slept)
when asleep.
(cause to) move, go or happen fast.
TFD: To go, move, or proceed
Rate-fast
quickly. To cause to go, move, or
proceed quickly; hasten. MW: to
move, work, or take place faster. to
cause to move quickly.
(cause to) turn around and around,
Revolve, Rotate, especially fast. TFD: To rotate rapidly;
Spin
whirl. To cause to rotate swiftly; twirl.
MW: to revolve rapidly : gyrate. to
cause to whirl: impart spin to.
and suddenly towards a particular
Rate-fast;
place. TFD: To move upward or
Sudden
forward in a single quick motion or a
movement?
series of such motions; leap. MW:
dart, shoot. To make a leap or series of
leaps
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] to make or turn a
somersault; to turn over and over.
mp-jump
[intransitive verb] to walk during sleep;
[transitive verb], to walk along (a place)
while asleep.
[intransitive verb]To go or move with
speed. [transitive verb] To send with
speed or haste; to hurry (a person, etc.)
out or away; also, to force to go. To give
speed to (a course, etc.); to hasten; to
cause to be rapid in movement.
mp-run
[intransitive verb] To revolve or gyrate;
to
whirl
round.
[transitive verb] To cause to turn or
revolve rapidly; to twirl or whirl.
animals: To bound or leap. Of things: To
change place or position by sudden and
rapid movement without contact; to
move with a sudden jerk or bound (in
later use esp. by resilient force)
mp-jump
366
English Motion
verb
sprint
Motion AM
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
#
1
squat
Self-c
Manner
1
squaredance
Self-c
Manner
1
stagger
Self-c /
Transl
Manner
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] to run as fast as you
can over a short distance, either in a
race or because you are in a great
hurry to get somewhere. LLA: To run
mp-run; Rate- as fast as you can over a short
fast
distance, usually in a race. TFD: To
move rapidly or at top speed for a
brief period, as in running or
swimming. MW: to run or go at top
speed especially for a short distance.
[intransitive verb] to position yourself
close to the ground balancing on the
front part of your feet with your legs
bent under your body. TFD: To sit in a
Posture (vertical- crouching position with knees bent
downwards)
and the buttocks on or near the heels.
MW: to assume or maintain a position
in which the body is supported on the
feet and the knees are bent so that the
buttocks rest on or near the heels.
AS NOUN: in the US, a traditional
dance in which four pairs of dancers
Dance
dance together. TFD: NO FOUND AS
MOTION VERB. MW: [intransitive
verb] no definition is provided.
[intransitive verb] to walk or move
with a lack of balance as if you are
going to fall. LLA: To walk very
unsteadily, with your body moving
from side to side and almost falling,
Unsteady Motion especially because you are injured,
very tired, or drunk. TFD: To move or
stand unsteadily, as if under a great
weight; totter. MW: to reel from side
to side : totter b: to move on
unsteadily.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To run, row, etc., at
full speed, esp. for a short distance; to
race in this manner.
mp-run
[reflexive verb] To seat (oneself) upon
the hams or haunches; to take one's seat
in a crouching attitude or posture.
[intransitive verb] Of persons: To sit
down with the legs closely drawn up
beneath the hams or in front of the body;
esp. to sit on the ground in this way or in
a crouching attitude. Also jocularly, to
sit (down).
provided.
[intransitive vern] Of a person or
animal: To sway involuntarily from side
to side when trying to stand or walk
erect; to totter or reel as if about to fall;
to walk with a swaying movement of the
body and unsteady and devious steps, as
from weakness, giddiness, intoxication,
or the carrying of a heavy burden. Often
with adv. or phrase indicating the
direction of movement.
mp-walk
367
English Motion
verb
stalk1
stalk2
stamp
stampede
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Self-c /
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Path + Manner
Manner
Figure (body
part: foot) +
Manner
Path + Manner
Manner Details
Furtive Motion
[transitive verb] to follow an animal or
person as closely as possible without
being seen or heard, usually in order to
catch or kill them. TFD: to follow
stealthily or recur constantly and
spontaneously to. MW: to pursue
quarry or prey stealthily. to pursue by
stalking.
mp-walk; State
of Figure
(annoyed or
proud)
[intransitive verb] to walk in an angry
or proud way. TFD: walk stiffly. MW:
to walk stiffly or haughtily.
2
Noisy activity;
State of Figure
(annoyed)?
[intransitive and transitive verb] to put
a foot down on the ground hard and
quickly, making a loud noise, often to
show anger. TFD: To walk with
forcible, heavy steps. MW: to strike
or thrust the foot forcibly or noisily
downward.
away from
G
2
(departure,
source)
Rate-fast; State
of the Figure
(frightened)
[intransitive and transitive verb] No
definition is provided. TFD: To flee in
a headlong rush. MW: to flee
headlong in panic.
#
2
Path
Details
after G
1
[intransitive verb] To go stealthily to,
towards (an animal) for the purpose of
killing or capturing it (obs.). Hence, to
pursue game by the method of stealthy
approach, esp. by the use of a stalkinghorse or of some device for concealing
oneself from the view of the hunted
animal.
[intransitive verb] To walk with stiff,
high, measured steps, like a long-legged
bird. Usually with disparaging notion,
implying
haughtiness,
sullenness,
indifference to one's surroundings, or the
like. [i.e., angry, proud attitude].
[transitive verb] To march proudly
through (a country, etc.).
[intransitive verb] To bring down the
foot heavily.To bring the sole of one's
foot suddenly and forcibly down (upon
the ground or floor, or some other
object), with the object of crushing or
beating down something. [intransitive
verb] To walk with a heavy, ‘pounding’
tread; to walk noisily or laboriously,
tramp.
[transitive verb] To cause a stampede
amongst (cattle); to cause a stampede of
(a person's) cattle. [intransitive verb] Of
a herd of cattle: To become panicstricken and take to flight. Of a company
of persons: To rush with common
impulse.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
mp-walk
mp-walk
368
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
step
Transl
stomp
Transl /
Self-c
stoop
Self-c
Semantic
components
Figure (body
part: foot) +
Manner
Manner
Manner
#
2
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] to move by lifting
your foot and putting it down in a
different place. [intransitive verb] to
put your foot on or in something.
TFD: To shift or move slightly by
taking a step or two. To walk a short
mp-walk
distance to a specified place or in a
specified direction. To move with the
feet in a particular manner. MW: to
move by raising the foot and bringing
it down elsewhere or by moving each
foot in succession. to go on foot.
[intransitive verb] to walk with
intentionally heavy steps, especially as
mp-walk; State a way of showing that you are
of Figure
annoyed. LLA: To walk with heavy
(annoyed);
steps, making a lot of noise to show
Characteristic that you are angry. TFD: [intransitive
use of lower
verb] To tread or trample heavily or
body (Stepsviolently. [transitive verb] To tread or
heavy)
trample heavily or violently on. MW:
to walk with a loud heavy step usually
in anger.
[intransitive verb] to bend the top half
of the body forward and down. TFD:
To bend forward and down from the
waist or the middle of the back. To
walk or stand, especially habitually,
Posture (vertical- with the head and upper back bent
downwards)
forward. MW: To bend the body or a
part of the body forward and
downward sometimes simultaneously
bending the knees. to stand or walk
with a forward inclination of the head,
body, or shoulders
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To lift the foot and set
it down again on the ground in a new
position; to lift and set down the feet
alternately in walking; to pace, tread. To
move to a new position by extending the
foot to a higher or lower level or across
an intervening object or space (e.g. in
entering or leaving a carriage or boat,
ascending or descending stairs)
[intransitive verb] = STAMP; [transitive
verb] To stamp or trample on (a person,
etc.). To tramp or trudge between (a
series of places).
mp-walk
[intransitive verb]To bow down, to
descend. Of a person: To lower the body
by inclining the trunk or the head and
shoulders forward, sometimes bending
the knee at the same time. Often with
down.
369
English Motion
verb
storm
stray
streak
stretch
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
Self-c
Semantic
components
Manner
Path
Manner
Manner
#
Path
Details
1
Manner Details
State of Figure
(annoyed);
Violent Motion
away from
G
1
(departure,
source)
1
1
Rate-fast
Posture
(unspecified
orientation)
[intransitive verb] to enter or leave a
place in a way that shows that you are
angry. TFD: To move or rush
tumultuously, violently, or angrily.
MW: to rush about or move
impetuously, violently, or angrily.
from Anglo-French estraier, from
Vulgar Latin *extravagare, from Latin
extra- outside + vagari to wander
[intransitive verb] to travel along a
route that was not originally intended,
or to move beyond a limited area.
TFD: To move away from a group,
deviate from the correct course, or go
beyond established limits. MW: to
wander accidentally from a fixed or
chosen route.
[intransitive verb] to move somewhere
extremely quickly, usually in a straight
line. TFD: To move at high speed;
rush. MW: to move swiftly.
straighten your body or your arms or
legs so that they are as long as
possible, in order to exercise the joints
after you have been in the same place
or position for a long time. TFD: To
become lengthened, widened, or
distended. MW: to become extended
in length or breadth or both.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To rush with the
violence of a storm.
[intransitive verb] To escape from
confinement or control, to wander away
from a place, one's companions.
[intransitive verb] To wander from the
direct way, deviate.
[intransitive verb] To go or advance
quickly; to go at full speed, to rush.
[transitive verb] To cause to move fast
or like lightning.
mp-run
[transitive verb] To prostrate (oneself,
one's body); to extend (one's limbs) in a
reclining posture; refl. to recline at full
length. To extend (the arms) laterally; to
expand (the wings), esp. for flight.
[reflexive verb] To straighten oneself; to
rise to full height (also with up); also, to
draw up the body, as from a stooping,
cramped, or relaxed posture; to
straighten the body and extend the arms,
as a manifestation of weariness or
langour (chiefly coupled with yawn).
370
English Motion
verb
stride
Motion AM
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
#
1
stroll
Transl
Manner
1
strut
Transl
Manner
1
stumble
Transl
Manner
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
quickly with long steps. LLA: To walk
mp-walk; Ratequickly, taking big steps, in an angry,
fast;
determined or confident way. TFD: To
Characteristic
walk with long steps, especially in a
use of lower
hasty or vigorous way. [transitive
body (Stepsverb] To walk with long steps on,
long)
along, or over. MW: to move with or
as if with long steps.
mp-walk;
relaxed manner, especially for
Leisurely
pleasure. LLA: To walk in a slow and
Motion; State of relaxed way, especially for pleasure.
Figure (relaxed) TFD: To go for a leisurely walk. MW:
to walk at leisure along or about.
[intransitive verb] to walk in a proud
way trying to look important. LLA: To
walk proudly with your head high,
shoulders back, and chest pushed
mp-walk; State forward in a way that shows you think
of Figure (proud) you are important or impressive.TFD:
To walk with pompous bearing;
swagger. MW: to walk with a proud
gait b: to walk with a pompous and
affected air.
[intransitive verb] to step awkwardly
while walking or running and fall or
begin to fall. LLA: To walk
unsteadily, often hitting things with
your feet and almost falling, especially
because it is dark, the ground is
Obstructed
Motion; mpuneven, or because you are tired or
drunk. TFD: To miss one's step in
walk/mp-run
walking or running; trip and almost
fall. To proceed unsteadily or
falteringly; flounder. MW: to trip in
walking or running. to walk unsteadily
or clumsily.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To walk with long or
extended steps; to stalk. Often with
implication of haste or impetuosity, of
exuberant vigour, or of haughtiness or
arrogance.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To walk or ramble in
a careless, haphazard, or leisurely
fashion as inclination directs; often
simply to take a walk.
[intransitive verb] To walk with an
affected air of dignity or importance,
stepping stiffly with head erect.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To miss one's footing,
or trip over an obstacle, in walking or
running, so as to fall or be in danger of
falling.
371
English Motion
verb
stump
swagger
sway
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Self-c
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
Manner
#
1
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
mp-walk; State
of Figure
(annoyed);
Characteristic
use of lower
body (Stepsheavy)
[intransitive verb] stomp = to walk
with intentionally heavy steps,
especially as a way of showing that
you are annoyed. TFD: To walk
heavily or clumsily. MW: to walk
heavily or clumsily.
[intransitive verb] To walk clumsily,
heavily, or noisily, as if one had a
wooden leg. To knock on the floor in
walking.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] to walk, especially
with a swinging movement, in a way
that shows that you are very confident
and think that you are important, or to
act in that way. LLA: To walk
proudly, swinging your shoulders, in a
mp-walk; State
way that shows too much self
of Figure (proud)
confidence. TFD: To walk or conduct
oneself with an insolent or arrogant
air; strut. MW: to conduct oneself in
an arrogant or superciliously pompous
manner; especially: to walk with an air
of overbearing self-confidence.
[intransitive verb] To behave with an air
of superiority, in a blustering, insolent,
or defiant manner; now esp. to walk or
carry oneself as if among inferiors, with
an obtrusively superior or insolent air.
[intransitive verb] to move slowly
from side to side. TFD: To swing back
and forth or to and fro. MW: to swing
slowly and rhythmically back and
forth from a base or pivot.
[intransitive verb] To move or swing
first to one side and then to the other, as
a flexible or pivoted object: often
amplified by phr., e.g. backwards and
forwards, to and fro, from side to side.
[transitive verb] To cause to move
backward and forward or from side to
side
Shake, Swing,
Vibrate
372
English Motion
verb
sweep
swerve
swim
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
Path
Manner +
Ground (water)
#
Path
Details
1
1
2
Manner Details
Contact
[between F and
G]
[intransitive verb] to move, especially
quickly and powerfully. If a road,
river, range of mountains, set of steps,
etc. sweeps in a particular direction,
they follow a particular curved path.
[transitive verb] to quickly spread
through and influence an area. To
travel across all of an area, especially
when looking for something. TFD: To
move swiftly with strong, steady
force. To move swiftly in a lofty
manner, as if in a trailing robe. MW:
to touch in passing with a swift
continuous movement.
[transitive verb] To move swiftly and
evenly or with continuous force over or
along the surface of. [intransitive verb]
To move with a strong or swift even
motion; to move along over a surface or
region, usu. rapidly, or with violence or
destructive effect; sometimes, to come
with a sudden attack, to swoop. a. of a
person, an animal, a ship (or the like).
To move or walk in a stately manner, as
with trailing garments.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] to change direction,
especially suddenly. TFD: o turn aside [intransitive verb] To turn aside, deviate
or be turned aside from a straight in movement from the straight or direct
course. MW: to turn aside abruptly course.
from a straight line or course : deviate.
Change
direction
mp-swim
move through water by moving the
body or parts of the body. TFD: To [intransitive verb] To move along in or
move through water by means of the on water by movements of the limbs or
limbs, fins, or tail. MW: to propel other natural means of progression.
oneself in water by natural means (as
movements of the limbs, fins, or tail).
373
English Motion
verb
swing
swirl
swoop
Motion AM
Self-c
Self-c
Transl
AM
AM
Manner Details
Shake, Swing,
Vibrate
move easily and without interruption
backwards and forwards or from one
side to the other, especially from a
fixed point, or to cause something or
someone to do this. TFD: To move
back and forth suspended or as if
suspended from above. To cause to
move back and forth, as on a swing.
MW: to move freely to and fro
especially in suspension from an
overhead support. to cause to move
vigorously through a wide arc or
circle. to cause to sway to and fro.
[intransitive verb] To move freely
backwards and forwards, as a body
suspended from a support above; to
oscillate below a point of support, as a
pendulum or the like. Of a person: To
move backwards and forwards through
the air upon a suspended rope or a
swing. [transitive verb] To cause to
oscillate, as a body suspended from a
support above; to move or sway
(something) to and fro in this or a
similar manner.
1
(cause to) move quickly with a
twisting circular movement. TFD: To
Revolve, Rotate, move with a twisting or whirling
Spin
motion; eddy. To cause to move with a
twisting or whirling motion. MW: to
move with an eddying or whirling
motion. To cause to swirl.
[intransitive verb] Of water or of objects
borne on water: To move in or upon
eddies or little whirlpools. Of other
objects: To move rapidly in eddies or in
a whirling or circular course. [transitive
verb] To give a whirling or eddying
motion to; to bring into some position by
a whirling motion; to whirl, brandish.
Path + Manner +
3
Ground
[intransitive verb] to move very
quickly and easily through the air,
especially down from a height in order
to attack. to make a sudden attack on a
place or group of people in order to
surround and catch them. TFD: To
move in a sudden sweep. To make a
rush or an attack with or as if with a
sudden sweeping movement. Often
used with down. MW: to move with a
sweep.
[intransitive verb] To make a rapid
sweeping descent through the air upon
its prey, as a bird. To come down upon
suddenly with a sweeping movement,
esp. with the intention of seizing, as a
body of troops.
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
#
Path
Details
1
down
towards G
Rate-fast
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
374
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
tack
Transl
Path
1
Change
direction
tail
Transl
Path+ Manner
2
after G
tango
Self-c
Manner
1
Dance
tapdance
Self-c
Manner
1
Dance
taxi
Transl
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
tear
Transl
AM
Manner
1
Furtive Motion
Rate-fast
provided. TFD: To change the
direction or course of a vessel. MW: to
change to an opposite tack by turning
the bow to the wind.
[transitive verb] to follow and watch
someone very closely, especially in
order to get information secretly.TFD:
To follow. MW: to form or move in a
straggling line.
AS NOUN: an energetic dance of
South American origin for two people,
or the music for this dance.
[intransitive verb] TFD: to perform
this dance. MW: to dance the tango.
AS NOUN: a type of dance in which
the rhythm is marked by the noise of
the dancer's shoes on the floor. TFD:
dance and make rhythmic clicking
sounds by means of metal plates
nailed to the sole of the dance shoes.
MW: [intransitive verb] no definition
is provided.
AS NOUN: a car with a driver whom
you pay to take you somewhere. TFD:
[intransitive and transitive verb] To be
transported by taxi. To transport by or
as if by taxi. MW: [intransitive verb]
to ride in a taxicab. [transitive verb] to
transport by or as if by taxi.
quickly. LLA: To run very quickly
and without really looking where you
are going, because you are in a hurry.
TFD: To move with heedless speed;
rush headlong. MW: to move or act
with violence, haste, or force.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To shift the tacks and
brace the yards, and turn the ship's head
to the wind, so that she shall sail at the
same angle to the wind on the other side;
to go about in this way.
[transitive verb] To follow someone
closely; spec. to follow secretly as a
detective or spy, etc.
[intransitive verb]To dance the tango.
provided.
[intransitive verb] To travel in a taxi.
[transitive verb] To convey in a taxi.
[intransitive verb] To move with
violence or impetuosity; to rush or
‘burst’ impetuously or violently. colloq.
Sometimes with the notion of a force
that would tear its way through
obstacles.
375
English Motion
verb
teeter
throw
thrust
thunder
Motion AM
Self-c /
Transl
Transl
Transl
Transl
AM
AM
AM
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
Path + Manner
Manner
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
1
[intransitive verb] to appear to be
about to fall while moving or standing.
Unsteady Motion
To walk or move unsteadily or
unsurely; totter. To cause to teeter or
seesaw. MW: to move unsteadily.
[intransitive verb] To see-saw. To move
like a see-saw; to sway from side to
side; to move unsteadily; esp. of a
person or animal, to walk with a
swaying motion; to balance oneself
unsteadily on alternate feet. [transitive
verb] To move (anything) with a seesaw motion.
1
Forced Motion
(Energy-high);
Rate-fast
[intransitive verb] to (cause to)
move/act quickly or carelessly.
send something through the air with
force, especially by a sudden
movement of the arm. TFD: To cast,
fling, or hurl something. To propel
through the air with a motion of the
hand or arm. To discharge into the air
by any means. MW: to fling (oneself)
precipitately. to propel through the air
by a forward motion of the hand and
arm.
[reflexive verb] To fling or cast oneself;
to precipitate oneself. [transitive verb]
To project (anything) with a force of the
nature of a jerk, from the hand or arm,
so that it passes through the air or free
space; to cast, hurl, fling; spec. to cast
by a sudden jerk or straightening of the
arm, esp. at the level of or over the
shoulder
Forced Motion
(Energy-high)
[intransitive verb] To push or force one's
way, as through a crowd; to crowd in; to
make one's way or advance as against
[intransitive and transitive verb] to obstacles; to press onwards or into a
push suddenly and strongly. TFD: To place, etc. [transitive verb] To cause
force one's way. MW: to push (anything, esp. something grasped in the
forward.
hand) to enter, pierce, or penetrate some
thing or place by or as by pushing; to
put, drive, or force into some place or
position.
Noisy activity
[intransitive verb] To make a loud
[intransitive verb] to move, making a resounding noise like thunder; to sound
lot of noise. TFD, MW: NO FOUND very loudly; to roar. Sometimes
connoting violent movement: To rush or
AS MOTION VERB.
fall with great noise and commotion.
2
1
forwards
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
376
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
Semantic
components
#
tiptoe
Transl
Manner
1
tittup
Transl
Manner
1
toboggan
Transl
Manner
1
toddle
Transl
Manner
1
topple
Transl
Cause + Path
2
AM
Path
Details
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] on tiptoe(s) on your
toes with the heel of your foot lifted
mp-walk;
off the ground. LLA: To walk on your
Characteristic
toes because you do not want to make [intransitive verb] To raise oneself or
use of lower
any noise. TFD: To walk or move stand on tiptoe. To go or walk on tiptoe;
body (on
quietly on one's toes. MW: to stand or to step or trip lightly.
tiptoes): Furtive
raise oneself on tiptoe. To walk or
Motion?
proceed quietly or cautiously on or as
if on tiptoe.
[intransitive verb] To walk or go with an
[intransitive verb] TFD: To move in a up-and-down movement; to walk in an
lively, capering manner; prance. to affected manner; to mince or prance in
State of the
walk with a lofty proud gait, often in one's gait; of a horse or other animal, to
Figure (proud) an attempt to impress others; MW: to canter, gallop easily; also, to prance;
move in a lively manner often with an hence of a rider, or one driving a
exaggerated or affected action.
vehicle; of a boat, to toss with abrupt
jerky movements.
AS NOUN: an object used for sliding
over snow and ice which consists of a
low frame on which a person or [intransitive verb] To ride on a toboggan
Vehicle /
people sit. [intransitive verb] TFD: To or sleigh; esp. to ‘coast’ or slide down a
Instrument
coast, ride, or travel on a toboggan. snowy (or other) slope on a toboggan.
MW: to coast on or as if on a
toboggan
young child) to walk with short steps,
[intransitive verb] To walk or run with
trying to keep the body balanced.
short unsteady steps, as a child just
mp-walk;
TFD: To walk with short, unsteady
beginning to walk, an aged or invalid
Unsteady Motion steps. To walk leisurely; stroll. MW:
person; also said of a similar walk or run
to walk with short tottering steps in
of any animal.
the manner of a young child. To take a
stroll.
[intransitive verb] To fall top foremost,
[intransitive and transitive verb] to or as if top-heavy; to fall headlong,
Earth(cause to) lose balance and fall down. tumble or pitch over. [intransitive verb]
based
TFD: To totter and fall. MW: to fall To lean over unsteadily, as if on the
orientation:
from or as if from being top-heavy.
point
of
falling;
to
overhang
downwards
threateningly.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
mp-walk
mp-walk
377
English Motion
verb
totter
Motion AM
Self-c /
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
#
Path
Details
1
tour
Transl
Manner
1
track
Transl
Path + Manner
2
after G
Manner Details
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
Unsteady
Motion; mpwalk?
[intransitive verb] to walk in a shaky
way that looks as if you are about to
fall. TFD: To sway as if about to fall.
To walk unsteadily or feebly; stagger.
MW: to tremble or rock as if about to
fall. to move unsteadily.
[intransitive verb] To walk or move with
unsteady steps; to go shakily or feebly;
to toddle; also, to walk with difficulty;
to reel, stagger.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To make a tour or
circuitous journey, in which many
places are visited, usually without
retracing one's steps; to make a
prolonged excursion for recreation or
on a tour somewhere. TFD: To travel
business; spec. of an actor, a theatrical
Leisurely Motion
from place to place, especially for
company, or the like: to go ‘on tour’, to
pleasure. MW: to make a tour (of).
travel from town to town fulfilling
engagements. [transitive verb] To make
the tour or round of, to tour in (a country
or district).
[transitive verb] to follow a person or
animal by looking for proof that they
[transitive verb] To follow up the track
have been somewhere, or by using
or footsteps of; to trace the course or
electronic equipment. TFD: To follow
movements of; to pursue by or as by the
Furtive Motion
the tracks of; trail. To follow a course;
track left; with down, out, up, to follow
travel. MW: To follow the tracks or
up or trace until found or caught.
traces of : trail. to search for by
following evidence until found.
378
English Motion
verb
trail
traipse
Motion AM
Transl
AM
Transl
tram
Transl
tramp
Transl
Semantic
components
Path + Manner
Manner
AM
#
2
1
Manner
1
Manner
1
Path
Details
after G
Manner Details
(allow something to) move slowly
along the ground or through the air or
water, after someone or something.
[transitive verb] to follow the trail of
someone
or
something.
TFD:
Furtive Motion?;
[intransitive verb] To drag or be
Contact
dragged along, brushing the ground.
[between F and
MW: to walk or proceed draggingly,
G]?
heavily, or wearily: plod, trudge. To
follow a trail. To follow upon the
scent or trace of : track. To follow in
the footsteps of : pursue. To follow
along behind. To lag behind (as a
competitor).
[intransitive verb] to walk from one
place to another, often feeling tired or
bored. LLA: To walk a very long way,
especially when you are looking for
mp-walk; No
something or visiting different places,
aim in motion so that you become tired. TFD: To
walk or tramp about. MW: to go on
foot. to walk or travel about without
apparent plan but with or without a
purpose.
AS NOUN: an electric vehicle that
transports people, usually in cities, and
goes along metal tracks in the road.
Vehicle /
[transitive verb] TFD: To move or
Instrument
convey in a tram. MW: [transitive
verb] to haul in a tram or over a
tramway.
walk, especially long distances or with
mp-walk; Stepsheavy steps. TFD: To walk with a
heavy
firm, heavy step; trudge. MW: to
walk, tread, or step especially heavily.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To follow the trail or
track of the game. [transitive verb] To
draw behind one; to drag along upon the
ground or other surface (esp. something
hanging loosely, as a long garment);
also, to drag (a person) roughly, to hale;
to haul. To carry or convey by drawing
or dragging, as in a vehicle or ship.
[intransitive verb] To walk in a trailing
or untidy way; e.g. to walk or ‘trail’
through the mud; to walk with the dress
trailing or bedraggled; to walk about
aimlessly or needlessly. (Usually said of
a woman or child.)
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To travel by a
tramway or on a tram-car. [transitive
verb] To convey (coal, ore, etc.) by a
tram or trams.
[intransitive verb] To tread or walk with
a firm, heavy, resonant step; to stamp.
mp-walk
379
English Motion
verb
trample
travel
traverse
tread
trek
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Semantic
components
Figure (body
part: feet) +
Manner
Manner
Transl
Path
Transl
Figure (body
part: feet) +
Manner
Transl
Manner
#
Path
Details
2
2
1
mp-walk;
Violent Motion
step heavily on something or someone,
causing damage or injury. TFD: To [intransitive verb] To tread or walk
tread heavily or destructively. MW: heavily; to stamp.
tramp; especially : to tread heavily so
as to bruise, crush, or injure.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
From Anglo-French travers (as in a
travers, de travers across), from Latin
transversum (as in in transversum set
crosswise) [transitive verb] to move or [intransitive verb] To make a journey; to
Leisurely Motion
travel through an area. TFD: To travel go from one place to another; to journey.
or pass across, over, or through. MW:
to go or travel across or over. to move
or pass along or through.
1
1
Manner Details
pass/cross
G
(traversal)
[transitive verb] to move or travel
through an area. TFD: To travel or
pass across, over, or through. MW: to
go or travel across or over. to move or
pass along or through.
[intransitive and transitive verb]
MAINLY UK to put your foot on
something or to press something down
mp-walk;
with your foot. TFD: To go on foot;
Violent Motion
walk. To set down the foot; step. MW:
o step or walk on or over. o beat or
press with the feet : trample.
[intransitive verb] to walk a long
distance, usually over land such as
hills, mountains or forests. LLA:
Especially British, to walk a very long
mp-walk; Forced way especially in the mountains. TFD:
motion?
To make a slow or arduous journey.
To journey on foot, especially to hike
through mountainous areas. MW: to
make one's way arduously; broadly :
journey.
[transitive verb] To run across or
through; to cross.
[intransitive verb] To walk, go, pace; to
set down the feet in walking; to step.
Also said of the foot. To step or walk
upon or along; to follow, pursue (a path,
track, or road)
[intransitive verb] To make a journey by
ox-wagon; hence, to travel, migrate;
also, to go, proceed; to go away, depart
(slang). [transitive verb] To cover
(ground, a distance) by ‘trekking’.
mp-walk
380
English Motion
verb
tremble
Motion AM
Self-c
Semantic
components
Manner
#
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
Shake, Swing,
Vibrate
trip
Transl
AM
Manner
1
Obstructed
Motion; mpwalk/mp-run;
trolley
Transl
AM
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
troop
Transl
Manner
1
mp-walk;
Motion in file?
[intransitive verb] to shake slightly,
usually because you are cold,
frightened, or very emotional. TFD:To
shake
involuntarily,
as
from
excitement or anger; quake.To vibrate
or quiver. MW: to shake involuntarily
(as with fear or cold) : shiver.
lose your balance after knocking your
foot against something when you are
walking or running, or to cause
someone to do this. TFD: To stumble.
MW: to catch the foot against
something so as to stumble.
AS NOUN: a small vehicle with two
or four wheels that you push or pull to
transport large or heavy objects on.
US for tram.
[intransitive and
transitive verb] TFD: To convey
(passengers) or travel by trolley. MW:
[transitive verb] to convey by a
trolley. [intransitive verb] to ride on a
trolley.
in a large group, usually with one
person behind another. TFD: To
assemble or move in crowds. MW: to
move or gather in crowds. to move in
large numbers.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] Of persons (less
commonly of animals), or of the body or
a limb: To shake involuntarily as with
fear or other emotion, cold, or weakness;
to quake, quiver, shiver.
[intransitive verb] To strike the foot
Low
against something, so as to hop, stagger,
ratings.
or fall; to stumble over an obstacle; to
No
make a false step. [transitive verb] To
significant
cause to stumble or fall by suddenly
difference
arresting or catching the foot.
[transitive verb] to convey by trolley;
[intransitive verb] to travel by trolley
[intransitive verb] To march in rank; to
walk or pass in order.
mp-walk
381
English Motion
verb
trot
Motion AM
Transl
truck
Transl
trudge
Transl
trundle
Transl
AM
Semantic
components
Manner
#
1
AM
Manner
AM
Manner
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
[intransitive verb] a way in which a
four-legged animal moves which is
faster than walking, in which a front
leg and the back leg on the opposite
side move together. LLA: To run
mp-run; Rate- fairly slowly, taking short steps. TFD:
slow
To go or move at a trot. To proceed
rapidly; hurry. [transitive verb]To
cause to move at a trot. MW: to ride,
drive, or proceed at a trot. to proceed
briskly : hurry. [transitive verb] to
cause to go at a trot.
[intransitive verb] to transport
something somewhere in a truck.
Vehicle /
To drive a truck. To transport by
Instrument
truck. To carry goods by truck. MW:
[intransitive and transitive verb] to be
employed in driving a truck. to
transport goods by truck.
[intransitive verb] to walk slowly with
a lot of effort, especially over a
mp-walk; Ratedifficult surface or while carrying
slow; Forced
something heavy. LLA: To walk
Motion (Energyslowly and with heavy steps,
low);
especially because you are tired, it is
Characteristic
difficult to walk, or you do not want
use of lower
to go somewhere. TFD: To walk in a
body (Stepslaborious, heavy-footed way; plod.
heavy)
MW: o walk or march steadily and
usually laboriously.
[intransitive and transitive verb](to
cause something) to move slowly and
unevenly on wheels. TFD: To move
Revolve, Rotate,
along by or as if by rolling or
Spin
spinning. MW:
to progress by
revolving. To move on or as if on
wheels.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] Of a horse, and
occasionally other quadrupeds: To go at
the gait called the trot. Also said of a
man. [intransitive verb] To go or move
quickly; to go briskly or busily; to
bustle; to run. [transitive verb] To cause
to trot; to lead or ride at the trot.
mp-run /
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To drive or take
charge of a truck, to act as a truckdriver. [transitive verb] To put on or into
a truck; to convey by means of a truck or
trucks.
[intransitive verb] To walk laboriously,
wearily, or without spirit, but steadily
and persistently
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] To move along on a
surface by revolving; to roll. [transitive
verb] To cause to roll along upon a
surface, as a ball, hoop, or other globular
or circular object; to roll, bowl.
382
English Motion
verb
tumble
turn1
turn2
Motion AM
Transl
Self-c
Transl
AM
AM
AM
Semantic
components
Path + Manner
Manner
Path
#
Path
Details
Earthbased
2
orientation:
downwards
1
1
Change
direction
Manner Details
Rate-fast;
Uncontrolled
Motion
[intransitive verb] to fall quickly and
without control. TFD:To topple, as
from power or a high position; fall.
[transitive verb] To cause to fall; bring
down. MW: to fall suddenly and
helplessly. [transitive verb] to cause to
tumble (as by pushing or toppling).
[intransitive verb] To fall; esp. to fall in
a helpless way, as from stumbling or
violence; to be precipitated, fall
headlong; also said of a stream falling in
a cataract. To fall prone, fall to the
ground; often const. down, over. Also,
to stumble by tripping over an object.
[transitive verb] To cause to fall
suddenly or violently; to throw or cast
down.
(cause to) move in a circle round a
fixed point or line. TFD: To move
around an axis or center; rotate or
Revolve, Rotate, revolve. To cause to move around an
Spin
axis or center; cause to rotate or
revolve. MW: o move around on an
axis or through an arc of a circle :
rotate. to cause to move around an axis
or a center : make rotate or revolve.
(cause to) change the direction in
which you are facing or moving. TFD:
To change or reverse one's way,
course, or direction. To change the
direction or course of. MW: to reverse
a course or direction. To present by a
change in direction or position.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To move round on an
axis or about a centre; to rotate, revolve,
whirl, spin, as a wheel; to move partly
round in this way, as a door or the like
upon hinges, a key, a weathercock, etc.
[transitive verb] To cause to move round
on an axis or about a centre; to cause to
rotate or revolve, as a wheel.
[intransitive verb] To move or shift (by a
rotary motion, or through an angle) so as
to change one's posture or position; esp.
to shift the body (as on an axis) from
side to side; to twist or writhe about.
383
English Motion
verb
twine
twirl
Motion AM
Self-c
Self-c
twist1
Self-c
twist2
Self-c
AM
AM
AM
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
1
wrap round an object several times.
Revolve, Rotate, TFD: To become twisted, interlaced,
Spin (wrap
or interwoven. To go in a winding
around, turn
course; twist about. MW: to coil about
around)
a support. to stretch or move in a
sinuous manner : meander. To twist
together. to form by twisting : weave
1
(cause to) give a sudden quick turn or
set of turns in a circle. TFD: o move or
Revolve, Rotate,
spin around rapidly, suddenly, or
Spin (turn
repeatedly. To rotate or revolve
around)
briskly; swing in a circle; spin. MW:
to revolve rapidly. to cause to rotate
rapidly.
Manner
1
Posture (Bend,
Twist, Curve)
turn something, especially repeatedly,
or to turn or wrap one thing around
another. TFD: To be or become
twisted. To rotate or revolve. MW: to
turn or change shape under torsion.
Manner
1
Dance
Manner
Manner
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To wind or twist
(about, over, or round something);
almost always of a plant: to grow in a
twisting or spiral manner; spec. to
become twisted or wreathed together in
growing; to grow in spiral convolutions.
[transitive verb] To turn (something)
about, away, round, etc.; to twist or
wring. To cause (one thing) to encircle
or embrace another; to twist, wreathe,
clasp, or wrap (a thing) about or around
another.
[intransitive verb] To rotate rapidly, to
spin; to be whirled round or about; also
to turn round quickly so as to face or
point the other way; also fig. of the mind
or head: to be in a whirl, be confused or
giddy. [transitive verb] To cause to
rotate or spin; to turn (an object) round
rapidly.
[intransitive verb and reflexive] To pass
or move in a tortuous manner; to coil or
twine about or round; to penetrate into
something with a tortuous movement or
action. To form into a spiral; to bend,
curve, or coil spirally. [transitive verb]
To wind or coil (a thread or the like) on
or round something; to attach in this
way; to encircle (an object) with or as
with a thread, etc.; to entwine in
something else.
TFD, MW: to dance the twist.
384
English Motion
verb
vault
vibrate
waddle
Motion AM
Transl
Self-c
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
AM
Manner
Manner
#
1
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
jump over something by first putting
your hands on it or by using a pole.
mp-jump; Use of LLA: To jump over something, using
one's hands or of your hands to help you. TFD: To jump
across or leap over (an obstacle). MW:
an instrument
To leap vigorously; especially : to
execute a leap using the hands or a
pole.
shake slightly and quickly, or to cause
something to do this, in a way that is
felt rather than seen or heard. TFD: To
move back and forth or to and fro,
Shake, swing
especially rhythmically and rapidly.
vibrate
To shake or move with or as if with a
slight
quivering
or
trembling
motion.To cause to tremble or quiver.
MW: To move to and fro or from side
to side : oscillate. to swing or move to
and fro.
[intransitive verb] (usually of a person
or animal with short legs and a fat
body) to walk with short steps,
swinging the body from one side to
mp-walk;
the other. TFD: To walk heavily and
Swinging
clumsily with a pronounced sway.
MW: to walk with short steps
Motion
swinging the forepart of the body from
side to side. to move clumsily in a
manner suggesting a waddle (=an
awkward clumsy swaying gait).
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To spring or leap;
spec. to leap with the assistance of the
hand resting on the thing to be
surmounted, or with the aid of a pole.
[transitive verb] To get over, surmount,
by vaulting.
mp-jump
[intransitive verb] To move or swing
backwards and forwards, or upwards
and downwards, with some degree of
rapidity; to quiver, shake, or tremble.
[transitive verb] To give a vibratory
motion to (something); to cause to move
to and fro or up and down, esp. with a
quick motion; to put in vibration.
[intransitive verb] To walk with short
steps, swaying alternately from one leg
to the other, as is done by a stout shortlegged person. said of animals; esp. of
ducks or geese.
mp-walk
385
English Motion
verb
wade
waft
wag
Motion AM
Ground (water)
+ Manner
Transl
Transl
Self-c
Semantic
components
AM
AM
Ground (air) +
Manner
Manner
#
2
2
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
walk through water with difficulty
because of the pressure of the water
against your legs. LLA: To walk
mp-walk; Forced
through deep water. TFD: To walk in
Motion (Energyor through water or something else
low)
that similarly impedes normal
movement. MW: to step in or through
a medium (as water) offering more
resistance than air.
(cause to) move gently through the air.
TFD: To float easily and gently, as on
the air; drift. to cause to go gently and
Smooth Motion smoothly through the air or over
water. MW: to move or go lightly on
or as if on a buoyant medium. to cause
to move or go lightly by or as if by the
impulse of wind or waves.
(especially of a tail or finger) to move
from side to side or up and down,
especially quickly and repeatedly, or
to cause this to happen. TFD: To move
briskly and repeatedly from side to
side, to and fro, or up and down.To
move (a body part) rapidly from side
Shake, Swing, to side or up and down, as in
Vibrate
playfulness, agreement, admonition, or
chatter. MW: to move to and fro or up
and down especially with quick jerky
motions. o swing to and fro or up and
down especially with quick jerky
motions. switch <a dog wagging its
tail>; specifically : to nod (the head)
or shake (a finger) at (as in assent or
mild reproof).
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To walk through
water or any liquid or soft substance
which impedes motion. Formerly often,
to pass over a river, etc., on foot (now
rare). [transitive verb] To walk through
(water, etc.).
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] [intransitive verb] To
pass through the air or through space; to
float upon, come or go with the wind or
breeze. [transitive verb] Of the wind: To
propel (a vessel) or convey (a navigator
or passenger) safely. To carry
(something) through the air or through
space.
Intransitive uses. To be in motion or
activity; to stir, move. Now colloq.
(chiefly in negative context), to stir,
move one's limbs. To oscillate, shake, or
sway alternately in opposite directions,
as something working on a pivot, fitting
loosely in a socket, or the like. Of a boat
or ship: To rock. Of a limb, the head or
tail, etc.: To be moved briskly from side
to side. [transitive verb] To move (a
limb or part of the body attached by a
joint) to and fro, up and down, or from
side to side: usually implying rapid and
repeated movement.
386
English Motion
verb
walk
waltz
wander
Motion AM
Transl
Self-c
Transl
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
Manner
#
1
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
mp-walk
Dance
mp-walk; No
aim in Motion
move along by putting one foot in
front of the other, allowing each foot
to touch the ground before lifting the
next. TFD: To move over a surface by
taking steps with the feet at a pace
slower than a run. To go or travel on
foot. MW: To move along on foot :
advance by steps.
AS NOUN: a formal dance in which
two people holding each other move
around a large room, turning as they
go and repeating a movement of three
steps, or a piece of music with three
beats in a bar written for this style of
dancing. [intransitive verb] to dance a
waltz. TFD: To dance the waltz. MW:
to dance a waltz.
walk around slowly in a relaxed way
or without any clear purpose or
direction. LLA: To walk around with
no particular aim and in no particular
direction, especially in a place you do
not know or when you are lost.
TFD:To move about without a definite
destination or purpose. MW: to move
about without a fixed course, aim, or
goal. to go idly about : ramble.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To journey, move
about, esp. on foot. To go from place to
place; to journey, wander.
[intransitive verb] To dance a waltz.
Also, to be addicted to, or practised in,
the waltz; to dance the waltz in a
specified manner.
animals: To move hither and thither
without fixed course or certain aim; to
be (in motion) without control or
direction; to roam, ramble, go idly or
restlessly about; to have no fixed abode
or station. [transitive verb] To roam
over, in, through (a place); to traverse in
wandering.
mp-walk
387
English Motion
verb
wave
wheel
Motion AM
Self-c
Transl
AM
AM
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
#
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
move from side to side, or to make
something move like this while
holding it in the hand. [intransitive and
transitive verb] to raise your hand and
move it from side to side as a way of
greeting someone, telling them to do
something or adding emphasis to an
expression. TFD:To move freely back
Shake, swing,
and forth or up and down in the air, as
vibrate
branches in the wind. To cause to
move back and forth or up and down,
either once or repeatedly. MW: to
motion with the hands or with
something held in them in signal or
salute. to float, play, or shake in an air
current : move loosely to and fro. to
swing (something) back and forth or
up and down.
[transitive verb] to push an object that
has wheels so that it moves in a
particular direction. [intransitive and
transitive verb] TFD: To roll or move
Vehicle /
on or as if on wheels or a wheel. To
Instrument → roll, move, or transport on wheels or a
Revolve, Rotate, wheel. MW: to turn on or as if on an
Spin
axis : revolve. to travel on or as if on
wheels or in a wheeled vehicle. o
cause to turn on or as if on an axis :
rotate. to convey or move on or as if
on wheels or in a wheeled vehicle.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To move to and fro or
up and down. [transitive verb] To move
through the air with a sweeping gesture
(the uplifted or extended arm or hand, or
something held in the hand by one
extremity, e.g. a wand, a hat, or
something that flutters in the breeze, as a
flag, a handkerchief), often as a sign of
greeting or farewell, or as an expression
of exultation; usually implying repeated
movements to and fro or up and down.
To move like a wheel (and connected
senses). [intransitive verb] To turn or
revolve about an axis or centre, like a
wheel on its axle; to rotate; to whirl.
[transitive verb] To turn (something) on
or as on a wheel; to cause to revolve
about an axis; to rotate; to cause to move
in a circle or cycle.
388
English Motion
verb
whirl
whisk
whiz (z)
Motion AM
Self-c
Transl
Transl
AM
AM
Semantic
components
Manner
Manner
Manner
#
1
1
1
Path
Details
Manner Details
(cause something to) spin round. TFD:
To revolve rapidly about a center or an
axis. [transitive verb] To cause to
rotate or turn rapidly. MW: to move
Revolve, Rotate, in a circle or similar curve especially
Spin
with force or speed. To turn on or
around an axis like a wheel. [transitive
verb] to drive, impel, or convey with
or as if with a rotary motion. To cause
to turn usually rapidly on or around an
axis
lightly, nimbly, and rapidly. [transitive
verb] To move or cause to move with
Rate-fast
quick light sweeping motions. MW:
[intransitive verb] to move nimbly and
quickly. [transitive verb] to move or
convey briskly.
[intransitive verb] to move or do
something
very
fast.
TFD:
[intransitive verb] To make a whirring
or hissing sound, as of an object
speeding through air. To move swiftly
Rate-fast; Noisy
with or as if with such a sound; rush.
Activity
MW: [intransitive verb] to hum, whir,
or hiss like a speeding object (as an
arrow or ball) passing through air. To
fly or move swiftly especially with a
whiz.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To move in a circle or
similar curve, to circle, circulate; more
vaguely, to move about in various
directions, esp. with rapidity or force; to
go (wander, fly, etc.) about; to be in
commotion.
To turn, esp. swiftly,
around an axis, like a wheel; to revolve
or rotate (rapidly); to spin. [transitive
verb] To cause to rotate or revolve, esp.
swiftly or forcibly; to move (something)
around an axis, or in a circle or the like:
with various shades of meaning.
[intransitive verb] To move with a light
rapid sweeping motion. To rush or dart
nimbly; to move about or travel swiftly
or briskly. [transitive motion] To move
(something) about, away, back, etc. with
a light sweeping motion.
mp-run
[intransitive verb] To make a sound as
of a body rushing through the air. To
move swiftly with or as with such a
sound. [transitive verb] To cause to
whizz; to hurl, shoot, or convey swiftly
with a whizz
mp-run
389
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
wiggle
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Shake, Swing,
Vibrate
wind
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Posture (Bend,
Twist, Curve)
wobble
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Shake, Swing,
Vibrate
(cause to) move up and down and/or
from side to side with small quick
movements. TFD: To move back and
forth with quick irregular motions. o
cause to move back and forth with
quick irregular motions. MW: o move
to and fro with quick jerky or shaking
motions. To cause to wiggle.
turn or cause something to turn. TFD:
[intransitive verb] To move in or have
a curving or twisting course. To move
in or have a spiral or circular course.
[transitive verb] To wrap (something)
around a center or another object once
or repeatedly. To wrap or encircle (an
object) in a series of coils; entwine.
MW: to have a curving course or
shape.
(cause something to) shake or move
from side to side in a way that shows a
lack of balance. TFD: To move or
rotate with an uneven or rocking
motion or unsteadily from side to side.
To tremble or quaver. To cause to
wobble. MW: to move or proceed with
an irregular rocking or staggering
motion or unsteadily and clumsily
from side to side b: tremble, quaver.
To cause to wobble.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To move to and fro or
from side to side irregularly and lightly,
to waggle; to walk with such a
movement, to stagger, reel, also to
waddle (now dial.); to go or move
sinuously, to wriggle. [transitive verb]
To move (something) in this way;
[intransitive verb] To take or have a bent
form. [transitive verb] To turn; to cause
to move in a curve.
[intransitive verb] Of a person or
animal: To move from side to side
unsteadily or with uncertain direction.
[transitive verb] To cause to move
unsteadily from side to side.
390
English Motion
verb
Motion AM
wriggle
Self-c
yacht
Transl
zigzag
Self-c
zoom
Transl
NO
Semantic
components
#
Path
Details
Manner Details
Manner
1
Posture (Bend,
Twist, Curve)
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
Manner
1
Path-shape
Manner
1
Rate-fast; Noisy
Activity
twist your body, or move part of your
body, with small, quick movements.
TFD: To turn or twist the body with
sinuous writhing motions; squirm.
MW: to move the body or a bodily
part to and fro with short writhing
motions like a worm to move or
advance by twisting and turning.
AS NOUN: a boat with sails and
sometimes an engine, used for either
racing or travelling on for pleasure.
[intransitive] TFD: To sail, cruise, or
race in a yacht. MW: [intransitive
verb] to race or cruise in a yacht.
[intransitive verb] to make a
movement or shape like a zigzag.
TFD: To move in or form a zigzag.
[transitive verb] To cause to move in
or form a zigzag. MW: to lie in,
proceed along, or consist of a zigzag
course.
quickly. TFD: To make a continuous
low-pitched buzzing or humming
sound.To move while making such a
sound. MW: to move with a loud low
hum or buzz. To go speedily.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] To twist or turn the
body about with short writhing
movements; to move sinuously; to
writhe, squirm, wiggle. [transitive verb]
To cause to writhe, twist, or bend
tortuously; to move or turn writhingly or
with quick jerks.
[intransitive verb] To make a trip in a
yacht.
[intransitive verb] To go or move in a
zigzag course; to have a zigzag course or
direction
[intransitive verb] To make a continuous
low-pitched humming or buzzing sound;
to travel or move (as if) with a
‘zooming’ sound; to move at speed, to
hurry. Also loosely, to go hastily.
mp-run
391
APPENDIX 2
MOTION VERBS IN SPANISH
APPENDIX 2. MOTION VERBS IN SPANISH
Spanish Motion
Verb
abalanzarse [to
dash (over) to]
abandonar [to
abandon]
Motion AM
Transl
Semantic
Components
Path + Manner
Transl
Path
#
Path
details
Manner
details
2
to/towards
G (arrival,
endpoint)
Forced
Motion
(Energyhigh)
1
away from
G
(departure,
source)
del fr. «abandonner», del germ.
[transitive verb]
«bann», orden de castigo;[transitive
apartarse de él.
verb] Marcharse de cierto sitio
(de «a-2» y «bordo») (de «borde1»,
del frances bord) [transitive and
intransitive verb] Acercarse un barco a
otro hasta tocarlo, intencionadamente
o por accidente. [transitive verb]
Dirigirse a alguien para hablarle de un
asunto o pedirle algo.
abordar [to bord
in attack; to
approach]
Transl
Path
1
to/towards
G (arrival,
endpoint)
acceder [to gain
access into]
Transl
Path
1
into G
acechar [to stalk]
Transl
Path + Manner
2
after G
acelerar [to
speed up; to
accelerate]
Transl
Manner
1
acercar (se) [to
(cause to) move
closer to]
Transl
acompañar [to
accompany; to go
with someone]
Transl
AM
Path
1
Figure + COMOTION
2
closer to G
Dictionary Definition (DUE)
Dictionary Definition (DRAE)
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
(«a, hacia, sobre») [pronominal verb]
Dirigirse alguien o algo violentamente [pronominal verb] Lanzarse, arrojarse en
hacia un sitio. Arrojarse, echarse, dirección a alguien o algo.
lanzarse, precipitarse.
del lat. «accedere», acercarse;
[intransitive verb] («a») Tener acceso
a un lugar
del
lat.
«assectari»,
perseguir
Furtive
[transitive
verb]
Observar
Motion
cautelosamente; seguir los pasos
del lat. «accelerare» [transitive verb]
Aumentar gradualmente la velocidad
Rate-increase
de un movimiento o de una acción
cualquiera
[transitive verb] («a») Poner una cosa
cerca o más cerca de quien habla o de
algo que se expresa. Aproximar.
(inf.; «a») Ir a un lugar para hacer
cierta cosa. (inf.; «a») Dirigirse hacia
una persona
Dejar
un
lugar,
[transitive verb] Dicho de una
embarcación: Llegar a otra, chocar o
tocar con ella. U. t. c. Intr. [i.e., also
used as intransitive verb]. Acercarse a
alguien para hacerle una pregunta,
iniciar un diálogo o tratar algún asunto.
[intransitive and transitive verb] Tomar
puerto, llegar a una costa, isla, etc.
[intransitive verb] Entrar en un lugar o
pasar a él.
[transitive verb] Observar, aguardar
cautelosamente con algún propósito.
mp-walk
[transitive verb] Dar mayor velocidad,
aumentar la velocidad.
mp-run
De a-1 y cerca2. Del lat. Circa.
[transitive verb and pronominal verb]
Poner cerca o a menor distancia de lugar
o tiempo.
[transitive verb] Estar o ir en compañía
de «a-2» y «compaña»
(«a»)
de otra u otras personas. U. t. c. prnl.
[transitive verb]; Ir con alguien.
[i.e., also used as pronominal verb]
mp-walk
393
Spanish Motion
Verb
Motion AM
acostar (se) [to
lay down; to lie
down]
Self-c
acudir [to go to a
specific place]
#
Path
details
1
Transl
Path
1
acurrucarse [to
curl up]
Self-c
Manner
1
adelantar (se) [to
(cause to) move
forwards]
Transl
Path
1
forwards
adentrarse [to go
into the interior
part of]
Transl
Path
1
into G
Self-c
agazaparse [to
crouch, to hide
oneself]
Self-c
AM
AM
Manner
details
Posture
(horizontal)
Manner
agachar (se) [to
(cause to) crouch]
AM
Semantic
Components
to/towards
G (arrival,
endpoint)
Posture
(Bend, Roll)
[transitive verb] «a-2» y «costa1»
Poner a alguien tumbado, para que
repose; [pronominal verb] Ponerse con
el cuerpo descansando en posición
horizontal. Echarse
(de «recudir», con influencia de
«acorrer») (del lat. «recutere») (del lat.
«accurrere», acudir)
[intransitive
verb] («a») Ir alguien a cierto sitio
donde es esperado o llamado o tiene
que hacer
de «a-2» y el lat. «corrugare»,
arrugar?) [pronominal verb] Aplicado
a personas, ponerse doblado y
encogido, ocupando el menos espacio
posible, para esconderse, para librarse
del frío.
[intransitive verb and pronominal
verb] («a, en») Ir hacia delante;
[transitive verb] Llevar o mover una
cosa hacia delante; Pasar delante de
otro en una carrera o en otra cosa.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[transitive verb] Echar o tender a alguien
para que duerma o descanse, y con
especialidad en la cama. U. t. c. prn.
[intransitive verb] Dicho de una persona:
Ir al sitio adonde le conviene o es
llamada.
[pronominal verb] Encogerse para
resguardarse del frío o con otro objeto.
[transitive verb] Mover o llevar hacia
adelante. U. t. c. prn. [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb]
[pronominal verb] (de «adentro») Ir
[pronominal verb] Penetrar en lo interior
hacia la parte más interna o más oculta
de algo. Pasar por dentro.
de algo.
Manner
1
Posture
(verticaldownwards)
Manner
1
Posture
(verticaldownwards)
[transitive verb] o abs. Inclinar hacia
abajo la cabeza o la parte superior del
cuerpo. Bajar;
[pronominal verb]
Inclinar hacia abajo la parte superior
del cuerpo, por ejemplo para coger
algo del suelo. Bajarse, inclinarse. A
veces, encogiéndose al mismo tiempo.
[pronominal verb] Encogerse y
pegarse al suelo, o ponerse detrás de
algo, para ocultarse.
[transitive verb] Inclinar o bajar alguna
parte del cuerpo, y especialmente la
cabeza. U. t. c. [i.e., also used as
intransitive verb and pronominal verb]
Encogerse, doblando mucho el cuerpo
hacia la tierra.
[pronominal
verb]
ocultarse, estar al acecho.
Esconderse,
394
Spanish Motion
Verb
agitar(se) [to
(cause to) shake,
to move about]
alcanzar [to
reach]
alejar (se) [to
(cause to) move
far away from]
aletear [to flap,
to flutter, to
wriggle]
Motion AM
Self-c
AM
Transl
Transl
AM
Semantic
Components
Manner
#
Path
to/toward G
1
(arrival,
endpoint)
Path
away from
G
(departure,
source)
1
Self-c
1
aligerar [to
quicken, to hurry
up]
Transl
Manner
1
alzar (se) [to put
up, to lift up; to
rise]
Self-c
Manner
1
ambular [to
wander about]
Transl
Manner
1
anadear [to walk
like a duck; to
duck walk]
Transl
Manner
1
Manner
details
Shake,
Swing,
Vibrate
1
Figure (body part:
wings, fins)
AM
Path
details
del lat. «agitare»,
hacer, mover;
Mover[se] algo repetidamente a un
lado y a otro
[transitive verb] del sup. lat.
«incalciare», con cambio de prefijo.
Llegar al punto en que está algo o
alguien que va delante en una marcha
o progreso hacia cierta cosa.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
Mover con frecuencia y violentamente.
[transitive verb] Llegar a juntarse con
alguien o algo que va delante.
[intransitive verb] Llegar hasta cierto
punto o término.
[pronominal verb] («de») Irse alguien
Distanciar, llevar una cosa o a una
o algo lejos del sitio que se considera.
persona lejos o más lejos.
[intransitive verb] Dicho de un ave:
[intransitive verb] Mover repetidas Mover frecuentemente las alas sin echar
veces las alas como para echarse a a volar. Dicho de un pez: Mover
volar, o las aletas.
frecuentemente las aletas cuando se lo
saca del agua.
[intransitive verb] Hacer algo más
rápido. Acelerar, apresurar. (inf.) En [intransitive verb] Abreviar, acelerar. U.
Rate-increase lenguaje informal se emplea también t. c. prn [i.e., also used as pronominal
como intransitivo: ‘Si no aligeras, verb]
llegarás tarde’.
[transitive verb] del sup. lat. «altiare»,
de «altus», alto; Poner vertical algo
Posture
[transitive verb] levantar (mover hacia
(verticalque estaba tumbado. [pronominal
arriba). [pronominal verb] Levantarse.
verb] Ponerse en pie cuando se está
upwards)
sentado.
mp-walk; No [intransitive
verb]
(del
lat.
[intransitive verb] Poco usado andar, ir
aim in
«ambulare», pasear) Ir continuamente
de una parte a otra
Motion
de un sitio a otro.
mp-walk;
[intransitive verb] Andar una persona
[intransitive verb] Andar una persona o
Animal-like con movimientos semejantes a los del
un animal moviendo mucho las caderas.
→ Swinwing pato.
mp-run
mp-walk
mp-walk
395
Spanish Motion
Verb
andar [to walk]
Motion AM
Transl
apartar (se) [to
(cause to) move
away from]
Transl
apisonar [to put
one's feet down on
the ground
repeatedly; to roll
flat]
apresurarse [to
hurry up]
Semantic
Components
Manner
AM
#
1
Manner
details
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] andar1 (del sup.
rom. «amlare», del lat. «ambulare»)
[intransitive verb] Moverse de un lado
a otro dando pasos. Caminar, marchar.
away from
G
(departure,
source)
1
Self-c
Manner
1
Iterative
Motion
Transl
Manner
1
Rate-increase
Transl
AM
Path
1
arquear (se) [to
(cause to) bend
(oneself)]
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Transl
AM
Manner
1
closer to G
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] Dicho de un ser
animado: Ir de un lugar a otro dando
Hyperonym
pasos. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb]
[transitive verb] Quitar a alguien o algo
[transitive and pronominal verb]
del lugar donde estaba, para dejarlo
Alejar[se] o separar[se] una cosa de
desocupado. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used
otras o de cierto sitio.
as pronominal verb]
Path
aproximar (se)
[to (cause to)
move closer to]
arrastrar (se) [to
drag something;
to drag oneself, to
crawl]
Path
details
[transitive verb] Pisar reiteradamente [transitive verb] Apretar o allanar tierra,
algo, particularmente la tierra, para grava, etc., por medio de un pisón o una
apretarlo y alisarlo.
apisonadora.
[pronominal verb] de «a-2»
«presura» Hacer algo con prisa
y
de «a-2» [(del lat. «ad-»)] y
«próximo» (del lat. «proxímus») ;
Poner[se] una cosa cerca o más cerca
del que habla o de algo que se expresa
[transitive verb] Dar a una cosa forma
Posture
de arco. Combar, curvar, doblar,
(Bend, Twist,
enarcar, encorvar. [pronominal verb]
Curve)
Tomar forma de arco o curva.
[transitive] de «a-2» y «rastrar» Mover
Contact
una cosa de modo que roza contra el
[between F suelo u otra superficie. [pronominal
and G]; Body verb] Moverse como los gusanos o los
close to the reptiles, con el cuerpo tocando el
Ground
suelo. Reptar. Moverse por el suelo o
estar tirado en el suelo.
[transitive verb] Dar prisa, acelerar. U. t.
c. prn [i.e., also used as pronominal
verb]
mp-run
[transitive verb] Arrimar, acercar. U. t. c.
prn [i.e., also used as pronominal verb]
[transitive verb] Dar forma de arco. U. t.
verb]
[transitive verb] Llevar a alguien o algo
por el suelo, tirando de él o de ello.
[intransitive verb] Dicho de una cosa: Ir
rasando el suelo y como barriéndolo, o
pender hasta tocar el suelo.
396
Spanish Motion
Verb
Motion AM
Semantic
Components
#
Path
details
Path
1
to/towards
G (arrival,
endpoint)
closer to G
Manner
details
[intransitive verb] Del lat. arripare, de
ripa, orilla. Mar. Llegar un barco al
puerto de su destino o refugiarse en un
puerto. Llegar.
(«a») Poner[se] una cosa cerca o más
cerca. Acercar[se].
arribar [(of a
ship) to reach
port; to arrive]
Transl
arrimar (se) [to
(cause to) move
closer to]
Transl
AM
Path
1
arrodillar (se) [to
(cause to) kneel
down]
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Posture
(verticaldownwards)
[pronominal verb] Ponerse con las
piernas dobladas, sosteniéndose sobre
las rodillas, por ejemplo para orar.
1
Forced
Motion
(Energyhigh)
[transitive verb]
Dejar caer algo
intencionadamente desde sitio alto,
impulsándolo o sin impulsarlo.
[pronominal
verb]
Lanzarse,
precipitarse, tirarse. Dirigirse brusca y
violentamente sobre algo o alguien.
arrojar (se) [to
throw; to throw
oneself]
Transl
AM
Manner
ascender [to
ascend]
Transl
AM
Path
Self-c
AM
Manner
asentar (se) [to
(cause to) sit
down]
atajar [to go
somewhere by
taking a short
cut]
Transl
Earth-based
1 orientation:
upwards
1
Ground (short cut) 1
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] Del lat. arripare, de
ripa, orilla. Llegar la nave a un puerto.
[transitive verb] Acercar o poner algo
junto a otra cosa. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also
used as pronominal verb]
[transitive verb] Hacer que alguien
hinque la rodilla o ambas rodillas.
[intransitive verb] Ponerse de rodillas.
U. m. c. prn [most commonly used as
pronominal verb]
[transitive verb] Impeler con violencia
una cosa, de modo que recorra una
distancia, movida del impulso que ha
recibido. [pronominal verb] Precipitarse,
dejarse ir con violencia. Ir violentamente
hacia alguien o algo hasta llegar a él o
ello.
(del lat. «ascendere») [intransitive [intransitive verb] Subir de un sitio a
verb] Ir hacia arriba. Subir.
otro más alto.
Posture
(verticaldownwards)
[transitive verb] Sentar a alguien en un
[transitive and pronominal verb] De a-1
sitio. [pronominal verb] Sentarse una
y sentar. Sentar en silla, banco, etc.
persona.
(de «a-2» y «tajar» (del lat. «taliāre»,
cortar) ) [intransitive verb] Hacer más [intransitive verb] Ir o tomar por el atajo.
corto el camino yendo por un atajo.
397
Spanish Motion
Verb
aterrizar [to
land]
Motion AM
Transl
Semantic
Components
Path + Ground
(land)
#
2
Path
details
Manner
details
down onto
G (arrival,
endpoint)
[intransitive verb] Posarse en tierra un
avión u otro aparato de navegación
aérea; puede también hacer de sujeto
«aviador, piloto», etc. Caer al suelo.
del
ár.
«atraqqà»,
ascender
[intransitive verb]
Arrimar una
embarcación a la costa o a otra
embarcación. Arribar. Llegar a tierra
una embarcación.
atracar [(of a
ship) to reach
port]
Transl
Path
to/toward G
1
(arrival,
endpoint)
atravesar [to
cross, to go
through]
Transl
Path
1
atropellar [to run
over]
Transl
Manner +
CONCURRENT
RESULT
2
avanzar [to move
forwards]
Transl
Path
1
bailar [to dance]
Self-c
Manner
1
Dance
bailotear [to
dance with little
attention or in a
careless way]
Self-c
Manner
1
Dance
pass/cross
G
(traversal)
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] Dicho de un avión o
de un artefacto volador cualquiera:
Posarse tras una maniobra de descenso,
sobre tierra firme o sobre cualquier pista
o superficie que sirva a tal fin.
[intransitive verb] Dicho de un piloto, de
un pasajero, de un paracaidista, etc.:
Llegar a tierra.
Del ár. at-taraqqa, la acción de anclar la
nave. [transitive verb] Mar. Arrimar
unas embarcaciones a otras, o a tierra. U.
t. c. intr. [i.e., also used as intransitive
verb] Acercar, arrimar.
de «a-2» y «través» (del lat.
[transitive verb] Pasar cruzando de una
«transversus») [transitive verb] Pasar
parte a otra.
de un lado al opuesto de una cosa.
Vehicle /
Instrument
forwards
de «a-2» y «tropel» [transitive verb]
Alcanzar una caballería, un vehículo u
otra cosa en movimiento a alguien o
algo y pasarle por encima o arrastrarlo
destrozándolo o causándole daño.
[transitive verb] Pasar precipitadamente
por encima de alguien. Dicho de un
vehículo: Alcanzar violentamente a
personas o animales, chocando con ellos
y ocasionándoles, por lo general, daños.
[intransitive verb] Dicho especialmente
del sup. lat. «abantiare», de «ab ante» de las tropas: Ir hacia adelante. U. t. c.
[intransitive verb] («a, hacia, hasta») prn [i.e., also used as pronominal verb].
Ir hacia delante. Adelantar, progresar. [transitive verb] Adelantar, mover o
prolongar hacia adelante.
del lat. «baiulare», mecer? [transitive
[intransitive verb] Ejecutar movimientos
verb]
Mover el cuerpo y los
acompasados con el cuerpo, brazos y
miembros con ritmo, generalmente
pies. U. t. c. tr [i.e., also used as
siguiendo el compás de una música.
transitive verb] Bailar una polca
Danzar.
[intransitive verb] Bailar mucho, y en
[intransitive verb] Bailar de cualquier
especial cuando se hace sin gracia ni
manera, con poca atención.
formalidad.
398
Spanish Motion
Verb
bajar [to (cause
to) go down]
Motion AM
Transl
balancear (se) [to
(cause to) to
swing]
Self-c
bordear [to skirt,
to go along the
edge of]
Transl
botar [to (cause
to) bounce,
rebound]
brincar [to jump]
Self-c
Self-c
AM
AM
AM
Semantic
Components
Path
#
1
Ground (edge of
something)
1
Manner
Manner
details
Earth-based
orientation:
1 downwards;
down
from/to G
Manner
Manner
Path
details
1
1
Shake,
Swing,
Vibrate
Bounce
mp-jump
de bajo, lat. bassus. [intransitive verb
and pronominal verb] («a, de, hacia,
por»)
Ir, en sentido material o
inmaterial, de un sitio o posición a
otros más bajos. [transitive verb]
Poner una cosa baja o más baja de lo
que estaba, o llevar una cosa de un
sitio a otro más bajo.
del antig. «balanzar», de «balanza»)
[pronominal verb and no frequently
intransitive verb] Moverse un cuerpo
inclinándose de un lado a otro.
Mover[se] una cosa colgante u
oscilante de un lado a otro.
[transitive verb] Ir próximo a la orilla
de algo sin entrar en ello. Bojar,
bojear, ir [o seguir] a lo largo. Rodear.
[transitive verb] del sup. germ.
«botan», golpear; Lanzar hacia el
suelo una pelota, un balón, etc., de
forma que rebote. [intransitive verb]
Salir despedida una pelota u otra cosa
elástica al chocar en algún sitio.
Epostracismo. Arbotante, rebotar.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
De bajo. Del lat. bassus. [intransitive
verb] Ir desde un lugar a otro que esté
más bajo. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb].
[transitive verb]
Poner algo en lugar inferior a aquel en
que estaba.
[intransitive verb] Dicho especialmente
de una nave: Dar o hacer balances. U. t.
c. tr [i.e., also used as transitive verb and
as pronominal verb]
[transitive verb] Ir por el borde, o cerca
del borde u orilla de algo.
[transitive verb] Lanzar contra una
superficie dura una pelota u otro cuerpo
elástico para que retroceda con impulso.
[intransitive verb] Dicho de una pelota o
de un balón: Saltar al chocar contra una
superficie dura.
[intransitive verb]
Dicho de una persona: Saltar desde el
suelo. Dicho de un cuerpo: Chocar
repetidamente contra una superficie
desigual y salir despedido por la fuerza
de los choques.
[intransitive verb] Levantarse a cierta
altura en el aire mediante un esfuerzo
instantáneo de los músculos, para [intransitive verb] Dar brincos o saltos.
subirse a un sitio, o volviendo a caer
inmediatamente. Saltar.
mp-jump
399
Spanish Motion
Verb
bucear [to dive,
swim down under
the water]
Motion AM
Transl
Semantic
Components
#
Manner + Ground
(underwater)
2
mp-swim;
underwater
Vehicle /
Instrument
(horse)
cabalgar [to ride
a horse]
Transl
Manner
1
cabecear [to
move or to shake
one's head]
Self-c
Figure (body part:
head)
1
cabriolar
(cabriolear) [to
caper about; to
capriole]
Self-c
Manner
Path
details
1
Earth-based
1 orientation:
downwards
caerse [to fall
down]
Transl
Path
callejear [to walk
around the
streets]
Transl
Ground (street) +
Manner
2
caminar [to
walk]
Transl
Manner
1
campanear [to
swing]
Self-c
Manner
1
Manner
details
mp-jump
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive
verb]
Nadar [intransitive verb] Nadar con todo el
manteniéndose debajo del agua.
cuerpo sumergido.
[intransitive verb] Subir o montar a
[intransitive verb] («a»: ‘a lomos, a
caballo. U. t. c. tr [i.e., also used as
espaldas, a mujeriegas’; «en, sobre»)
transitive verb]
Andar o pasear a
Estar o caminar sobre una caballería.
caballo.
[intransitive verb] Mover la cabeza a
un lado y a otro o arriba y abajo; como [intransitive verb] Mover o inclinar la
se hace al dormitar, como hace a veces cabeza, ya a un lado, ya a otro, o
el caballo o como hacen las flores moverla reiteradamente hacia adelante.
sobre sus tallos con el viento.
[intransitive verb] Hacer cabriolas
(Salto dado en la danza cruzando
varias veces los pies en el aire; Salto [intransitive verb] Dar o hacer cabriolas.
del caballo dando un par de coces
mientras se mantiene en el aire).
verb] del lat. «cadere») («de, desde, a,
hacia, en, por») Moverse una cosa de
arriba abajo por la acción de su propio
peso.
mp-walk; No
[intransitive verb] (de «calleja»)
aim in
Vagar por las calles. Deambular.
Motion
(de «camino») Ir alguien de un sitio a
mp-walk
otro en cualquier forma. Ir con los
propios medios de locomoción.
Shake,
Swing,
verb] Balancearse, oscilar.
Vibrate
[intransitive verb] Dicho de un cuerpo:
Moverse de arriba abajo por la acción de
su propio peso. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also
[intransitive verb] Andar frecuentemente
y sin necesidad de calle en calle.
mp-walk
[transitive verb] Andar determinada
distancia.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] Oscilar, balancear,
contonearse. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used
as pronominal verb]
400
Spanish Motion
Verb
Motion AM
capuzar (se) chapuzar(se) [to
(cause to) dive in]
Transl
caracolear [(of a
horse) to turn
around]
Semantic
Components
#
Path + Ground
(water) + Manner
3
Self-c
Manner
1
chancletear [to
walk using flipflops]
Transl
Manner
1
chapotear [to
move noisily in
water/mud]
Self-c
Manner + Ground
(water/mud)
2
chocar [to (cause
to) crash]
Transl
CONCURRENT
RESULT
1
AM
AM
Path
details
into G
Manner
details
(del lat. «caput», cabeza, y el sup. lat.
«puteare», sumergir) [transitive verb]
Meter a alguien de cabeza o
bruscamente en el agua. Chapuzar,
zambullir. [pronominal verb] Meterse
en el agua de cabeza o bruscamente.
[intransitive verb] Hacer giros o
Revolve,
caracoles el caballo. Escarcear (Vuelta
Rotate, Spin
que da un caballo por inquietud suya o
(turn around)
por voluntad del jinete)
mp-walk;
Vehicle /
[intransitive verb] Hacer el ruido
Instrument
particular que se produce al andar con
(flipflops);
chancletas. Traquetear.
Noisy
Motion
[intransitive verb] Hacer ruido en el
Noisy
agua, en el barro, etc., golpeándolos o
Motion
moviéndolos desordenadamente, por
ejemplo con los pies o las manos.
[intransitive verb] («con, contra, en»)
Juntarse dos cosas con un golpe, bien
moviéndose
ambas,
bien
permaneciendo quieta una de ellas.
[transitive verb] Hacer chocar.
Forced
Motion
(Energyhigh)
[transitive verb] Meter a alguien de
cabeza en el agua. U. t. c. [i.e., also used
as intransitive verb and as pronominal
verb]
[intransitive verb] Dicho de un caballo:
Hacer caracoles (vueltas y tornos).
[intransitive verb] Andar en chancletas.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] Producir ruido al
mover las manos o los pies en el agua o
el lodo, o al pisar estos. U. t. c. tr [i.e.,
also used as transitive verb]
[intransitive verb] Dicho de dos cosas:
Encontrarse violentamente una con otra,
como una bala contra la muralla, un
buque con otro, etc. [transitive verb]
Hacer que algo choque.
Transl
(Motion) +Ground
1
(circuit)
(del lat. «circulāre») [intransitive verb]
Moverse o dar vueltas en un circuito. [intransitive verb] Andar o moverse en
Por extensión, pasar, moverse dentro derredor. [intransitive verb] Ir y venir.
de un conducto o camino.
cocear [(of a
horse) to kick]
Self-c
Figure (body part:
kick)
1
[intransitive verb] Dar o tirar coces.
codear [to nudge]
Self-c
Figure (body part:
elbow)
1
[intransitive verb] Moverse dando con
[intransitive verb] Mover los codos, o
los codos a un lado y a otro, por
dar golpes con ellos frecuentemente.
ejemplo para abrirse paso.
circular [to move
along a given
path, to circuit]
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] Dar o tirar coces.
401
Spanish Motion
Verb
Motion AM
Semantic
Components
#
Path
details
Manner
details
mp-walk;
Forced
[intransitive verb] Tener un andar
Motion; State desigual por alguna lesión o defecto
of Figure
físico.
(injured)
[intransitive verb] Andar inclinando el
cuerpo más a un lado que a otro, por no
poder sentar con regularidad e igualdad
los pies.
cojear [to limp]
Transl
Manner
1
colear [(of an
animal) to wag]
Self-c
Figure (body part:
tail)
1
[intransitive verb] Menear la cola un [intransitive verb] Mover con frecuencia
animal.
la cola.
colisionar [to
crash]
Transl
CONCURRENT
RESULT
1
[intransitive verb] Chocar.
columpiar(se) [to
(cause to) swing]
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
(swing);
Shake,
swing,
vibrate;
conducir [to
drive]
Transl
AM
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
mp-walk;
State of
Figure
(proud)
contonearse [to
walk swaying
one's hips in a
proud way]
Transl
Manner
1
contramarchar
[to go backwards,
to back]
Transl
Path
1
back to G /
backwards
del leon. «columbiar», del gr.
«kolymbáo»)
[transitive
verb]
Impulsar a alguien en un columpio o
dar a cualquier cosa un movimiento
semejante. Balancear. [pronominal
verb] Balancearse alguien en el
columpio o moverse algo de forma
parecida. Mecerse.
(del lat. «conducere») [transitive verb]
Llevar un vehículo cosas o,
particularmente, personas, de un sitio
a otro.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] Dicho de dos o más
vehículos: Chocar con violencia.
[transitive verb] Impeler a quien está
sobre un columpio. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also
used as pronominal verb] [transitive
verb]
Mecer,
balancear,
mover
acompasadamente algo. U. t. c. prn [i.e.,
also used as pronominal verb]
[transitive verb] Llevar, transportar de
una parte a otra. [intransitiver verb]
Guiar un vehículo automóvil.
[pronominal verb] (de «cantonearse»)
[pronominal verb] Hacer al andar
Mover al andar los hombros y, sobre
movimientos afectados con los hombros
todo, las caderas, a veces con
y caderas.
afectación para presumir de garboso.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb]
Mar. Hacer [intransitive verb] De contra1 y marcha.
contramarcha (vuelta en una marcha Retroceso que se hace del camino que se
militar).
lleva.
mp-walk
402
Spanish Motion
Verb
correr [to run]
corretear [to run
about]
costear [to sail
along the coast;
to move along the
edge of]
cruzar [to cross]
Motion AM
Transl
Manner
Transl
Ground (coast)
Transl
Transl
curvar (se) [to
(cause to) curve,
to bend]
Self-c
danzar [to
dance]
Manner
Transl
culebrear [to
move like a snake,
to zigzag]
Self-c
Semantic
Components
Path
AM
Manner
details
1
mp-run
(del lat. «currere») [intransitive verb]
(«Arrancar a, Echarse a, Lanzarse a,
Ponerse a; a, por») Ir rápidamente de
un sitio a otro con pasos largos que
son saltos, pues se levanta el pie del
suelo antes de haber apoyado el otro.
1
mp-run; No
aim in
Motion
#
1
1
Manner
1
1
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
Andar rápidamente y con tanto impulso
Hyperonym
que, entre un paso y el siguiente, quedan
por un momento ambos pies en el aire.
[intransitive verb] coloq. Correr en
[intransitive verb] Ir corriendo de un
varias direcciones dentro de limitado
lado para otro, como hacen los niños.
espacio por juego o diversión.
Ir sin necesidad de un lado para otro.
[intransitive verb] coloq. Andar de calle
Callejear.
en calle o de casa en casa.
mp-run /
mp-walk
[transitive verb] Navegar sin perder de
[transitive verb] Ir navegando sin perder
vista la costa o la costa de cierto sitio
de vista la costa.Ir por el costado o lado
que se expresa. Ir por el costado de
de algo, bordearlo.
una cosa.
1
Manner
Manner
Path
details
De cruz. Del lat. crux, crucis. [transitive
[transitive verb] Atravesar un camino,
verb] Atravesar un camino, un campo,
campo, calle, etc., pasando de una
una calle, etc., pasando de una parte a
parte a otra.
otra.
pass/cross
G
(traversal)
Animal-like
→ Pathshape
(zigzag)
[intransitive verb] Moverse o andar
[intransitive verb] Andar formando eses
haciendo eses como la culebra.
y pasándose de un lado a otro.
Serpentear, zigzaguear.
mp-walk
(del lat. «curvare») [transitive verb]
Posture
[transitive verb] encorvar (doblar y
Dar a una cosa forma curva. Arquear,
(Bend, Twist,
torcer algo poniéndolo corvo). U. t. c.
combar, doblar, enarcar, encorvar.
Curve)
[pronominal verb] Tomar forma curva.
Dance
[intransitive verb] (del fr. antig.
«dancier», actual «danser») Moverse
rítmicamente siguiendo el compás de
una música. Se usa este verbo
particularmente cuando se trata de
bailes artísticos. En lenguaje corriente
es más frecuente bailar.
bailar
(ejecutar
movimientos
acompasados). U. t. c. tr [i.e., also used
as transitive verb]
403
Spanish Motion
Verb
Motion AM
derrumbar (se)
Transl
deambular [to
walk around]
Transl
Manner
desacelerar [to
slow down]
Transl
Manner
desandar [to
walk back to a
previous path]
AM
Semantic
Components
Transl
Path
Path + Manner
#
Path
details
Manner
details
(el sup. lat. «derupare», deriv. de
«rupes», roca) [transitive verb]
Derribar o hundir un edificio o
construcción. [transitive verb] Hacer
Earth-based
1 orientation:
caer una cosa desde una roca o por una
pendiente
escarpada.
Arrojar,
downwards
despeñar, precipitar. [pronominal
verb]
Caer
o
hundirse
una
construcción.
(del lat. «deambulare») [intransitive
mp-walk; No
verb]Andar sin objetivo determinado;
1
aim in
no se aplica a distancias muy grandes.
Motion
Vagar. Callejear.
1
2
back to G;
backwards
Transl
AM
Path
desembarcar [to
(cause to)
disembark]
Transl
AM
Path + Ground
(ship)
2
desenroscar (se)
[to (cause to)
uncoil]
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
[transitive verb] Precipitar, despeñar. U.
t. c. prn [i.e., also used as pronominal
verb]. [transitive verb] Derribar, demoler
una construcción o parte de ella. U. t. c.
[intransitive verb] Andar, caminar sin
dirección determinada.
mp-walk
Ratedecrease
[transitive verb] Disminuir la velocidad.
(de «des-» y «acelerar») [transitive
U. t. c. [i.e., also used as intransitive
verb] Reducir la aceleración.
verb]
mp-walk /
mp-run
mp-walk
[intransitive verb]
Recorrer en
dirección contraria el mismo camino
[transitive verb] retroceder (volver atrás)
recorrido antes. Retroceder. Desandar
lo andado.
mp-walk
del lat. «descendere») («de, desde,
por, hacia, hasta») [intransitive verb]
[intransitive verb] bajar (ir desde un
Ir de un sitio a otro más bajo. Bajar.
lugar a otro más bajo). [transitive verb]
[transitive verb] Poner una cosa baja o
bajar (poner bajo).
más baja de lo que estaba, o llevar una
cosa de un sitio a otro más bajo.
[intransitive verb] Salir de una
[transitive verb] Descargar las cosas
embarcación. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used
que van en un barco.(«de, en»)
as pronominal verb]. [transitive verb]
[intransitive verb]
Salir de una
Sacar de la nave y poner en tierra lo
embarcación.
embarcado.
Earth-based
1 orientation:
downwards
descender [to
(cause to) go
down]
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
out of G
Posture
(Unroll)
[transitive verb and pronominal verb] [transitive verb] Extender lo que está
Extender[se] lo que está enroscado. enroscado. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
Desenrollar.
pronominal verb]
404
Spanish Motion
Verb
desertar [to
desert]
desfilar [to walk
in file, to parade]
deslizar (se) [to
(cause to) slide]
despeñar(se) [to
(cause to) fall
down from a
rock]
Motion AM
Transl
Path
Transl
Transl
Transl
Semantic
Components
Manner
AM
AM
Manner
Path + Ground
(rock)
#
Path
details
1
away from
G
(departure,
source)
1
[intransitive verb] Dicho de varias
personas: Marchar en fila. [intransitive
verb] Mil. Dicho de las tropas: En
ciertas solemnidades, marchar en
formación ante alguna autoridad.
mp-walk
[transitive verb] Arrastrar algo con
suavidad por una superficie. U. m. c.
[i.e., most commonly used as
pronominal verb]
mp-walk /
mp-run
down from
G
(de «des-» y «peña») [transitive verb]
Arrojar una cosa desde lo alto de una
roca o un precipicio. Precipitar.
[pronominal verb] Caer por un
despeñadero.
[transitive verb] Precipitar y arrojar a
alguien o algo desde un lugar alto y
peñascoso, o desde una prominencia
aunque no tenga peñascos. U. t. c. prn
(de «des-» y «plomo».) (del lat.
«plumbum») [pronominal verb] Caer
pesadamente una cosa cualquiera por
cualquier causa. Particularmente, caer
pesadamente una persona al perder el
sentido o quedar muerta.
[pronominal verb] Dicho especialmente
de una pared o de un edificio: Caerse,
perder la posición vertical. [pronominal
verb] Dicho de una persona: Caerse sin
vida o sin conocimiento. [transitive
verb] Hacer que una pared, un edificio u
otra cosa pierda la posición vertical.
desplomar (se)
[to (cause to)
collapse]
Transl
AM
Path
Earth-based
1 orientation:
downwards
desviar (se) [to
divert; to be
diverted]
Transl
AM
Path
1
Change
direction
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
(del lat. «desertare»)
[intransitive
[intransitive verb] Dicho de un soldado:
verb] («de») Abandonar un soldado
Desamparar, abandonar sus banderas.
su puesto.
(de «des-» y «fila») [intransitive verb]
Marchar en fila. Pasar una formación
militar, por ejemplo en una
Motion in file solemnidad, por delante de un superior
o de algún personaje. Pasar un
conjunto de personas, por ejemplo una
manifestación, por algún sitio.
Contact
[between F [transitive verb and pronominal verb]
and G];
Mover[se] o pasar una cosa sobre otra
Smooth
suavemente.
Motion
1
2
Manner
details
[transitive verb] Apartar, alejar a alguien
(del lat. «deviare») Apartar[se] del
o algo del camino que seguía. U. t. c. prn
camino o dirección seguidos o de su
destino, en sentido material o figurado
405
Spanish Motion
Verb
dirigir (se) [to
lead something or
someone to
somewhere; to
head to]
dispersar (se) [to
(cause to)
disperse]
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
distanciar (se)
[to (cause to)
move away from]
Transl
divagar [to
wander]
Transl
echar (se)1 [to
(cause to) move
towards]
Transl
echarse2 [to lie
down]
Self-c
elevar (se) [to
(cause to) move
upwards]
Transl
AM
AM
AM
AM
AM
Semantic
Components
#
Path
details
Manner
details
Path
to/toward G
1
(arrival,
endpoint)
(del lat. «dirigere») [transitive verb]
Enviar o hacer ir una cosa a cierto
punto o en cierta dirección. Ir en cierta
dirección o hacia cierto sitio
[transitive verb] Enderezar, llevar
rectamente algo hacia un término o lugar
señalado. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb]
Path
Multiple
directions
1
from a
unique start
[transitive verb] Separar y diseminar lo
Mover[se] en distintas direcciones
que estaba o solía estar reunido. U. t. c.
cosas que estaban juntas o formando
grupo.
Path
1
away from
G
(departure,
source)
[transitive verb] Separar, apartar, poner a
Poner[se] distanciadas cosas que
distancia. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
estaban juntas o poner[se] más
pronominal verb]
distanciadas las que estaban separadas.
Manner
1
Path + Manner
2
Manner
1
Path
to/towards
G (arrival,
endpoint)
Earth-based
1 orientation:
upwards
mp-walk; No
(del lat. «divagāri») [intransitive verb]
aim in
Vagar.
Motion
(del lat. «iactare») [transitive verb]
(«a, en, por, sobre») Impulsar hacia
Forced
cierto sitio una cosa que se tiene
Motion
cogida con la mano, a la vez que se
(Energysuelta. [pronominal verb] Acercarse
high)
bruscamente a algo o alguien para
cogerlo, sujetarlo, abrazarlo.
Posture
(horizontal)
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] Vagar.
[transitive verb] Hacer que algo vaya a
parar a alguna parte, dándole impulso.
[pronominal
verb]
arrojarse
(ir
violentamente hacia alguien o algo).
[pronominal verb] Dicho de una
[pronominal verb] Ponerse con el
persona: Tenderse por un rato para
cuerpo en posición horizontal.
descansar.
[transitive verb] (del lat. «elevare») [transitive verb] levantar (mover hacia
Llevar una cosa desde un sitio a otro arriba). U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
más alto. [pronominal verb] Subir.
pronominal verb]
406
Spanish Motion
Verb
embarcar (se) [to
(cause to) go on
board]
emigrar [to
emigrate]
empinar (se) [to
(cause to) stand
up]
encabritarse [to
rear up]
encaramar (se)
[to (cause to)
move up, to the
top of]
Motion AM
Transl
AM
AM
Self-c
Transl
Manner
Manner
AM
#
Path
details
Manner
details
Path
2
away from
G
(departure,
source)
Posture
(verticalupwards)
1
Posture?:
Front part of
the Figure
rises
suddenly
1
1
up/onto G
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[transitive verb] Introducir personas,
[intransitive verb and pronominal mercancías, etc., en una embarcación,
verb] Meterse en un barco, tren o tren o avión. U. t. c. [i.e., also used as
intransitive verb and as pronominal
avión para viajar en ellos.
verb]
Path + Ground
on/onto/into
2
(ship, plane, train)
G
Path + Ground
(country)
Transl
Self-c
Semantic
Components
[intransitive
verb]
(del
lat.
«emigrare») Marcharse una persona
de su pueblo, región o país para
establecerse en otro.
[intransitive verb] Dicho de una persona,
de una familia o de un pueblo: Dejar o
abandonar su propio país con ánimo de
establecerse en otro extranjero.
(de «en-» y «pino2», erguido)
[transitive verb] Poner vertical una
cosa que estaba tumbada. Alzar, aupar,
levantar. Coger algo, por ejemplo un
niño, y levantarlo y sostenerlo en alto.
Alzar, aupar, levantar. [pronominal
verb] Levantarse todo lo posible
apoyando las puntas de los pies.
[transitive verb] Enderezar y levantar en
alto. [pronominal verb] Dicho de una
persona: Ponerse sobre las puntas de los
pies y erguirse.
[pronominal verb] Empinarse un
caballo, por rebeldía o por temor.
Levantarse la parte delantera de
algunas cosas, como una nave o un
avión.
[transitive verb] Hacer que un caballo se
empine, afirmándose sobre los pies y
levantando las manos. Hacer que una
embarcación,
un
aeroplano,
un
automóvil, etc., levante su parte
delantera súbitamente hacia arriba. U. m.
c. prnl. [i.e., most commonly used as
pronominal verb]
(del ár. and. «karáma») [transitive
verb] Poner a alguien o algo en sitio
elevado. Subir. [pronominal verb]
Subir a un sitio alto.
[transitive verb] Levantar o subir a
alguien o algo a lugar dificultoso de
alcanzar. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb]
407
Spanish Motion
Verb
encerrar (se) [to
put something,
someone or
oneself into an
enclosed place]
Motion AM
Transl
AM
Semantic
Components
Path
#
1
encorvar (se) [to
(cause to) bend,
to curve]
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
encumbrar [to
reach the top of]
Transl
AM
Path
1
Path
details
Manner
details
into G
encerrar (de «en-» y «cerrar») (del
sup. lat. vg. «serräre», del lat.
«seräre», cerrar, con influencia de
«serräre», serrar) [transitive verb]
Guardar una cosa en un sitio cerrado.
Meter a alguien en sitio de donde no
puede salir o escaparse. [pronominal
verb] Meterse alguien en un lugar y no
querer salir de ahí.
[transitive verb] Meter a una persona o a
un animal en lugar del que no pueda
salir. [pronominal verb] Retirarse del
mundo, recogerse en una clausura o
religión.
(del lat. «incurvare») [transitive verb]
Low
Posture
[transitive verb] Doblar y torcer algo
Hacer tomar forma curva a una cosa.
ratings. No
(Bend, Twist,
poniéndolo corvo. U. t. c. prnl. [i.e., also
Curvar. [pronominal verb] Tomar
significant
Curve)
forma curva una cosa.
difference
(de «en-» y «cumbre»)
transitive
[transitive
verb] Coronar o rebasar la cumbre de
pasarla.
una montaña.
up/onto G
(de «en-» y «derezar») [transitive verb
and pronominal verb]
Poner[se]
derecho algo que estaba torcido.
Desdoblar, desencorvar, desroblar,
destorcer. Recto.
verb]
Subir
la
cumbre,
[transitive verb] Poner derecho lo que
está torcido. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used
Poner derecho o vertical lo que está
inclinado o tendido. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also
enderezar (se)
[to (cause to)
straighten, to
become straight]
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Posture
(unspecified
orientation)
enrollar (se) [to
(cause to) roll]
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Posture
(Roll)
[transitive verb and pronominal verb] [transitive verb] Dar a algo forma de
Poner[se] una cosa, por ejemplo un rollo. U. t. c. prnl. [i.e., also used as
papel o un alambre, en forma de rollo. pronominal verb]
Posture
(Roll)
[transitive verb]
Poner una cosa
alargada formando una o más vueltas.
Arrollar,
arroscar,
enrollar.
[transitive verb] Poner algo en forma de
[pronominal verb] Ponerse una cosa
rosca. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
en forma de rosca. Tratándose de un
pronominal verb]
ser vivo, encoger el cuerpo formando
una especie de rosca, o varias roscas
en el caso de los reptil.
enroscar (se) [to
(cause to) coil]
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
408
Spanish Motion
Verb
entrar [to enter]
erguir (se) [to
(cause to)
straighten, stand
up]
errar [to wander
around]
Motion AM
Transl
Self-c
Transl
Semantic
Components
#
Path
AM
Manner
Manner
Path
details
Manner
details
Posture
(verticalupwards)
1
(del lat. «inträre») [intransitive verb] [intransitive verb] Ir o pasar de fuera
(«a, en, por») Pasar al interior de una adentro. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
cosa.
pronominal verb]
into G
1
(del lat. «erigere») [transitive verb]
Poner una cosa en posición vertical y
derecha. [pronominal verb] Poner
erguido el propio cuerpo.
(del lat. «errare», vagabundear)
mp-walk; No
[intransitive verb] Andar sin destino u
aim in
objetivo fijo y sin tener residencia fija.
Motion
Vagar
[pronominal verb and intransitive
verb] («de, de entre, por entre»)
Escaparse
algo
o
alguien
Furtive
escurriéndose de entre las manos de
Motion
quien lo sujeta.
Deslizarse.
Descabullirse, escullirse. Marcharse
de un sitio disimuladamente
[transitive verb] Levantar y poner
derecho algo, especialmente el cuello o
la cabeza. [pronominal verb] Levantarse
o ponerse derecho.
[intransitive verb] Andar vagando de una
parte a otra.
escabullirse [to
slip away]
Transl
Path + Manner
2
escalar [to scale,
to climb]
Transl
Path
1
up/onto G
[transitive verb] Subir a algún sitio.
Del lat. scalaris [transitive verb] Subir,
trepar por una gran pendiente o a una
gran altura.
away from
G
(departure,
source)
(del lat. «ex», fuera, y «cappa», capa)
verb]
Librarse, huyendo, de una
sujeción o encierro.
[intransitive verb] Salir de un encierro o
un peligro. [intransitive verb] Salir,
huir. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb]
Transl
Path + Manner
2
escoltar [to
escort]
Transl
Figure + COMOTION
2
espantar (se) [to
(cause to) run
away as result of
being frightened]
Transl
AM CAUSE + Manner 2
Rate-fast
mp-walk
[pronominal verb] Dicho de una cosa:
Irse o escaparse de entre las manos.
[pronominal verb] Dicho de una
persona: Apartarse, sin que de momento
se note, de la compañía en que estaba.
away from
G
(departure,
source)
escapar (se) [to
escape]
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[transitive verb] Acompañar algo o a [transitive verb] Resguardar, conducir
alguien que va de un sitio a otro, para algo o a alguien para que llegue con
protegerlo.
seguridad a su destino.
State of
Figure
(frightened)
[transitive verb] Hacer que un animal
se asuste y huya, o corra hacia cierto
sitio. Causar miedo a alguien.
[pronominal verb] Aterrarse o
ahuyentarse
[transitive verb] Causar espanto, dar
susto, infundir miedo. U. t. c. [i.e., also
used as i.e., also used as]. [intransitive
verb] [pronominal verb] Sentir espanto,
asustarse.
NO
TIENE
EL
SIGNIFICADO DE HUIR.
409
Spanish Motion
Verb
Motion AM
Semantic
Components
#
Path
details
Manner
details
Multiple
directions
1
from a
unique start
esparcir (se) [to
(cause to) move in
different
directions]
Transl
esprintar [to
sprint]
Transl
Manner
1
mp-run
esquiar [to ski]
Transl
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
(skis)
esquivar [to
avoid, to dodge]
estirar (se) [to
(cause to) stretch
out]
estrellar (se) [to
(cause to) crash]
AM
Transl
Self-c
Transl
Path
AM
AM
Manner
CONCURRENT
RESULT
1
1
(del lat. «spargere») [transitive verb]
Arrojar o enviar cosas en distintas
[transitive verb] Extender lo que está
direcciones;
[pronominal
verb]
junto o amontonado. U. t. c. prn [i.e.,
Extenderse lo que estaba junto o
amontonado.
Desparramar[se],
diseminar[se]
[intransitive verb] Realizar un sprint.
[intransitive verb] Realizar un esprint. NOUN: (Voz inglesa). Aceleración que
NOUN: Esfuerzo momentáneo en una realiza un corredor en un tramo
carrera, especialmente al final de ella, determinado de la carrera, especialmente
para lograr la victoria.
en la llegada a meta para disputar la
victoria a otros corredores.
Posture
(unspecified
orientation)
mp-run
[intransitive verb] Deslizarse sobre la
[intransitive verb] Patinar con esquís.
nieve o el agua con esquís.
(del germ. «skiuhan», tener miedo)
[transitive verb] Procurar o conseguir
[transitive verb] Evitar,
con habilidad no hacer algo, no
[pronominal]
Retraerse,
encontrarse con alguien o que no
excusarse.
ocurra alguna cosa que a uno le
molestaría o le pondría en un aprieto.
away from
G
(departure,
source)
Path
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
rehusar.
retirarse,
Estirar y poner tensos los miembros
para recobrar la agilidad después del
sueño o una quietud prolongada.
[transitive verb] Alargar, dilatar algo,
extendiéndolo con fuerza para que dé de
sí. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb]
[transitive verb] («contra») Lanzar con
violencia una cosa contra un sitio duro
o dejarla caer contra el suelo,
haciéndola
pedazos.
Estampar.
[pronominal verb] Tropezar o caer
violentamente contra algo duro,
causándose mucho daño.
Arrojar con violencia algo contra otra
cosa, haciéndolo pedazos. U. t. c. prn
[i.e., also used as pronominal verb].
[pronominal verb] Quedar malparado o
matarse por efecto de un choque
violento contra una superficie dura.
mp-run /
mp-walk
410
Spanish Motion
Verb
estremecer (se)
[to (cause to )
tremble, shiver]
exiliar (se) [to
(cause to) leave
one's country; to
exile, to go into
exile]
expatriar (se) [to
(cause to) leave
one's country; to
exile, to go into
exile]
extender (se) [to
(cause to)
stretch)
Motion AM
Self-c
Transl
Transl
Self-c
flotar [to float
(on liquid, on
air)]
Self-c
fondear [to move
down at the
bottom of the sea]
Transl
Semantic
Components
AM
Manner
AM
Path + Ground
(country)
AM
AM
Path + Ground
(country)
Manner
Manner
#
Path
details
Shake,
Swing,
Vibrate
1
2
2
Manner
details
[pronominal verb] Quedar malparado o
(del lat. «ex» y «tremiscere», empezar
matarse por efecto de un choque
a temblar) transitive verb] Hacer
violento contra una superficie dura.
temblar una cosa. [pronominal verb]
[pronominal
verb]
Temblar
con
Temblar alguien o algo.
movimiento agitado y repentino.
out of G
[transitive verb] Obligar a alguien a
exhiliarse.
[pronominal
verb]
Marcharse alguien de su patria
obligado por las persecuciones
políticas u otra circunstancia.
out of G
(de «ex-» y «patria») [transitive
verb]Hacer salir a alguien de su patria. [transitive verb] Hacer salir de la patria.
[pronominal verb] Abandonar alguien
su patria, voluntariamente o por [pronominal verb] Abandonar la patria.
necesidad.
1
Posture
(unspecified
orientation)
1
Smooth
Motion
Ground (deep sea) 1
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
Abrir[se],
desarrugar[se],
desdoblar[se] o desenrollar[se] una
cosa, de modo que se muestre en toda
su extensión. («sobre») [transitive
verb] Particularmente, hacerlo así con
una cosa poniéndola sobre algo que se
expresa. Tender la ropa. [pronominal
verb] Echarse alguien estirado sobre
algún sitio
(del fr. «flotter») [intransitive verb]
Mantenerse en la superficie de un
líquido sin sumergirse. [intransitive
verb] (del fr. «flotter») Moverse una
tela sujeta por algún lado, en el aire, a
impulso del viento. Ondear.
[transitive verb] Expulsar a alguien de
un territorio.
[pronominal verb]
Expatriarse, generalmente por motivos
políticos.
[transitive verb] Hacer que algo,
aumentando su superficie, ocupe más
lugar o espacio que el que antes
ocupaba. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb]
[transitive verb]
Desenvolver, desplegar o desenrollar
algo que estaba doblado, arrollado o
encogido. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb]
Sostenerse en la superficie de un líquido.
[intransitive verb] ondear (moverse
formando ondas).
[transitive verb] Sondear, reconocer el [transitive verb] Reconocer el fondo del
fondo del mar.
agua.
411
Spanish Motion
Verb
fugarse [to flee,
to run away]
galopar1 [to
gallop]
Motion AM
Transl
Semantic
Components
Path + Manner
Transl
Manner
#
Path
details
Manner
details
2
away from
G
(departure,
source)
Rate-fast
[pronominal verb] Escaparse o huir
alguien de un sitio en donde está [pronominal verb] Escaparse, huir.
encerrado, sujeto o vigilado.
mp-run;
Rate-fast
(del fr. «galoper») [intransitive verb]
Ir a galope. galope (de «galopar») m.
Equit. Marcha, la más veloz del [intransitive verb] Dicho
caballo, en que éste avanza dando caballería: Ir a galope.
saltos y apoyándose sucesivamente en
las patas traseras y delanteras.
1
galopar2 [to ride
a galloping
horse]
Transl
Manner
1
gatear1 [to
crawl]
Transl
Manner
1
gatear2 [to climb
like a cat]
girar1 [to turn, to
change one's
direction]
Transl
Path + Manner
Transl
girar2 [to (cause
to) rotate, spin]
Self-c
guiar [to guide,
to lead the way]
Transl
Path
AM
Vehicle /
Instrument
NO FOUND IN DUE
(horse); Ratefast
2
up/onto G;
upwards
1
Change
direction
Manner
1
Figure + COMOTION
2
mp-walk;
Use of one's
hands
Animal-like
→ Use of
one's hands
and legs
(clamber)
Revolve,
Rotate, Spin
[intransitive verb] Andar a gatas.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
de
mp-run
una
mp-run
[intransitive verb] Cabalgar en caballo
que va a galope.
[intransitive verb] coloq. Andar a gatas.
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] Trepar como los
[intransitive verb] Trepar valiéndose gatos, y especialmente subir por un
de los pies o las rodillas y las manos.
tronco o astil valiéndose de los brazos y
piernas.
(del lat. «gyrare») [intransitive verb]
Cambiar de dirección una calle o
camino. Cambiar una persona o
vehículo su dirección inicial.
(del lat. «gyrare») [intransitive verb]
Moverse un cuerpo de modo que
describe circunferencias alrededor de
otro; [transitive verb]
Mover
circularmente algo.
[transitive verb] Ir delante de otros o
con otros, mostrándoles el camino que
deben seguir.
[intransitive verb] Desviarse o cambiar
con respecto a la dirección inicial.
[transitive verb] Mover una figura o un
objeto alrededor de un punto o de un eje.
[intransitive verb] Dicho de una cosa:
Dar vueltas sobre un eje o en torno a un
punto.
[transitive verb] Ir delante mostrando el
camino.
412
Spanish Motion
Verb
haldear [to walk
quickly moving
one's skirt/dress]
hamacar (se) hamaquear (se)
[to rock (oneself)
on a hammock]
huir [to flee, to
run away]
hundir (se) [to
(cause to)
collapse, to sink]
Motion AM
Transl
Self-c
AM
Transl
Transl
inclinar (se) [to
(cause to) incline,
bend, bow)
Self-c
inmigrar [to
immigrate]
invadir [to
invade]
Semantic
Components
#
Manner
1
mp-walk;
Rate-fast
[intransitive verb]
Andar deprisa, (De halda) [intransitive verb] Dicho de
haciendo moverse las faldas.
una persona con faldas: Andar deprisa.
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
(hammock);
Shake,
Swing,
Vibrate.
[transitive verb] Am. Mecer, columpiar,
especialmente en hamaca. U. t. c. prn
Mecer[se] en hamaca.
Manner
Path + Manner
AM
AM
Path
2
Path
details
away from
G
(departure,
source)
Manner
details
Rate-fast
Earth-based
orientation:
1 downwards;
down
from/to G
Posture
(verticaldownwards)
Manner
1
Transl
Path + Ground
(country)
2
into G
Transl
Path + Manner
2
into G
Violent
Motion
(del lat. «fugire», por «fugore»)
verb] («a, de»)
Marcharse
precipitadamente de un sitio por
temor.
(del
lat.
«fundere»,
arruinar)
[transitive verb] Hacer caer un edificio
o construcción o parte de ellos.
[pronominal verb] Convertirse en
ruinas.
[intransitive verb] Alejarse deprisa, por
miedo o por otro motivo, de personas,
animales o cosas, para evitar un daño,
disgusto o molestia.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
mp-run
[transitive verb] Sumir, meter en lo
hondo. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb]
[transitive verb] Apartar algo de su
posición perpendicular a otra cosa o al
horizonte. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb]. [pronominal verb]
Bajar el tronco y la cabeza hacia
adelante.
[intransitive verb] Dicho del natural de
(del lat. «immigrare») [intransitive
un país: Llegar a otro para establecerse
verb] Llegar a un territorio para
en él, especialmente con idea de formar
establecerse en él. Se aplica también a
nuevas colonias o domiciliarse en las ya
los animales. Emigrar.
formadas.
(del lat. «invadere») [transitive
verb]Entrar en un sitio por la fuerza o
[transitive verb] Irrumpir, entrar por la
la violencia o contra la voluntad de los
fuerza.
que lo ocupan; particularmente, como
acción de guerra.
(del lat. «inclinare») [transitive verb
and pronominal verb] Separar[se] una
cosa de la posición horizontal o de la
vertical.
413
Spanish Motion
Verb
IR(se) [to go]
Motion AM
Transl
jinetear [to ride a
horse in a
showing off
manner]
Transl
ladear [to move
on the hillside
(usually on foot)]
(faldear)
Transl
Semantic
Components
Path
Manner
#
1
AM
Path
1
ladear (se)2 [to
slant, to lean]
Self-c
AM
Manner
1
Transl
AM
Manner
1
(del lat. «ire») [intransitive verb] («a,
hacia, para, hasta, contra») Moverse
hacia un sitio que se expresa. («en,
entre, por, sobre») A veces no se
expresa el lugar ni la dirección, sino
alguna circunstancia del movimiento.
[intransitive verb] Moverse de un lugar
hacia otro apartado de quien usa el verbo
ir
y
de
quien
ejecuta
el
movimiento.Caminar de acá para allá. U.
t. c. prn [i.e., also used as pronominal
verb]
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
Vehicle /
Instrument
[intransitive verb] Andar a caballo,
[intransitive verb] Presumir montando
principalmente por los sitios públicos,
(horse); State
a caballo.
of the Figure
alardeando de gala y primor.
(proud)
Ground (hillside) +
1
Manner
Transl
Manner
details
Deixis:
away from
G (speaker)
1
ladear (se)1 [to
(cause to) move
away from]
lanzar (se)
Path
details
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] Andar por la ladera [intransitive verb] Andar o caminar por
de una montaña. Faldear.
las laderas.
verb] Desviarse del camino derecho.
[intransitive verb] Declinar del camino
[pronominal verb] Apartarse o echarse
derecho.
a un lado para evitar una cosa o a una
persona.
away from
G
(departure,
source)
Posture (to
one side)
Forced
Motion
(Energyhigh)
[transitive verb and pronominal verb] [transitive verb] Inclinar y torcer algo
Inclinar[se] o torcer[se] una cosa hacia hacia un lado. U. t. c. [i.e., also used as
un lado.
intransitive verb and pronominal verb]
del lat. «lanceare» [transitive verb]
Hacer que una cosa salga disparada
impulsándola con la mano, con un
dispositivo o mecanismo, con un
explosivo o con un golpe. («a»)
[pronominal verb] Salir impulsado con
un dispositivo o mecanismo. prnl. Se
aplica a la acción de dirigirse a
cualquier cosa, en sentido material o
figurado,
con
precipitación
o
violencia.
[transitive verb] arrojar. U. t. c. prn [i.e.,
also used as pronominal verb] Dejarse ir
con violencia de lo alto a lo bajo. Ir
violentamente hacia alguien o algo hasta
llegar a él o ello.
414
Spanish Motion
Verb
largarse [to
leave]
levantar (se)1 [to
(cause to) stand
up]
Motion AM
Transl
Self-c
Semantic
Components
Path
AM
Manner
#
Path
details
1
away from
G
(departure,
source)
Earth-based
1 orientation:
upwards
Transl
llanear [to move,
walk or cycle on a
flat terrain]
Transl
Ground (flat
terrain)
1
llegar [to arrive]
Transl
Path
1
marchar [to
march]
Transl
AM
Path
Manner
Posture
(verticalupwards)
1
levantar (se)2 [to
lift, to raise]
1
Manner
details
[pronominal verb] Marcharse de un
sitio brusca o precipitadamente, por
eludir alguna cosa o por estar a
disgusto en él.
(de «levante», part. activo de «levar»)
[transitive verb] Poner de pie o en
posición vertical algo que estaba
tumbado o inclinado. [pronominal
verb] Ponerse de pie cuando se está
sentado o tumbado.
(de «levante», part. activo de «levar»)
(del lat. «leväre»). [transitive verb]
Separar una cosa del sitio donde está y
llevarla más arriba. [pronominal verb]
separarse algo del sitio donde está e
irse más arriba.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[pronominal verb] coloq. Dicho de una
persona: Irse o ausentarse con presteza o
disimulo.
[transitive verb] Poner derecha o en
posición vertical la persona o cosa que
esté inclinada, tendida, etc. U. t. c. prn
[transitive verb] Mover hacia arriba
algo. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb] Poner algo en lugar
más alto que el que tenía. U. t. c. prn
[transitive verb] Andar por un terreno
llano, evitando las pendientes. En [intransitive verb] Andar por lo llano,
ciclismo, correr con facilidad en el evitando pendientes.
llano.
to/towards
G (arrival,
endpoint)
del lat. «plicare», plegar; [intransitive
[intransitive verb] Alcanzar el fin o
verb] Pasar a estar en cierto sitio al
término de un desplazamiento.
que se va desde otro.
mp-walk;
Characteristic del fr. «marcher»[intransitive]; Mil. [intransitive verb] Mil. Dicho de la
use of lower Andar los soldados en formación y tropa: Ir o caminar con cierto orden y
body (regular marcando el paso.
compás.
steps)
415
Spanish Motion
Verb
marcharse [to go
away]
Motion AM
Transl
Semantic
Components
Path
mecer (se) [to
(cause to) swing,
rock]
Self-c
AM
Manner
menear (se) [to
(cause to) move]
(moverse)
Self-c
AM
(Self-contained
Motion)
merodear [to
walk around, to
prowl]
montar (se) [get
on/onto an animal
or into a vehicle]
Transl
Transl
Manner + Cause
Manner
#
1
1
2
1
Path
details
Manner
details
away from
G
(departure,
source)
Shake,
Swing,
Vibrate
mp-walk
Vehicle /
Instrument
[intransitive
verb]
Moverse
avanzando con los pies. Andar,
caminar. Moverse de un lugar a otro
de cualquier manera. [intransitive verb
and pronominal verb] Dejar, por
decisión o movimiento propio, de estar
en un sitio, determinado o no,
expresando o no la llegada a otro
Mover[se] una cosa repetidamente de
un lado al opuesto, manteniendo fijo
algún punto de ella o estando
suspendida o sostenida sobre un pie u
objeto oscilante; como una cuna, un
columpio o a un niño en su cuna.
del antig. «manear», de «mano», con
influencia del antig. «menar»,
conducir; [transitive verb] Cambiar la
posición o la situación de una cosa.
Mover. En particular, mover el cuerpo
o parte de él. [pronominal verb]
Moverse.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] andar. Irse o partir de
un lugar. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb].
[transitive
verb]
Mover
algo
compasadamente de un lado a otro sin
que mude de lugar, como la cuna de los
niños. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb]
[transitive verb] Mover algo de una parte
a otra. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb]
[intransitive verb] Ir repetidamente a
[intransitive verb] Vagar por las
un sitio sin un objetivo definido, o
inmediaciones de algún lugar, en general
vagar por un sitio, para observar,
con malos fines.
espiar, curiosear o en busca de algo.
verb] del fr. «monter» («en, sobre»;
con «caballo», también «a») Subirse
encima de un animal para ser
transportado o sobre un vehículo.
[intransitive verb] Ponerse o subirse
encima de algo. U. t. c. tr y c. prn [i.e.,
also used as transitive verb and as
pronominal verb].
[intransitive verb]
Subir a una cabalgadura. [intransitive
verb] cabalgar (andar o pasear a
caballo).
416
Spanish Motion
Verb
Motion AM
Semantic
Components
#
mover (se) [to
(cause to) move,
change one's
location]
Self-c
+
Transl
mudarse [to go
from one place to
another]
Transl
(Motion)
nadar [to swim]
Transl
Manner + Ground
(water)
2
naufragar [(of a
ship, or of people
in a ship) to sink]
Transl
Path + Ground
(sea)
2
navegar [to
navigate (on the
sea, on the air)]
Transl
AM
Path
details
Manner
details
(Motion)
Manner
1
noctambular [to
walk around at
night]
Transl
Manner
1
ondear [to
undulate, to
sway]
Self-c
Manner
1
mp-swim
down into
G
Vehicle /
Instrument
(ship,
airplane)
del lat. «movere» [transitive verb]
Cambiar la situación o posición de una
cosa. [pronominal verb] Cambiar de
posición una cosa. [pronominal verb
and intransitive verb] Iniciar la acción
de marcharse de un sitio levantándose
del asiento o de otro modo.
[transitive verb] Hacer que un cuerpo
deje el lugar o espacio que ocupa y pase
a ocupar otro. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used
Menear o agitar una cosa o parte de
algún cuerpo.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[pronominal verb and intransitive [pronominal verb] coloq. Dicho de una
verb] («de») Irse o pasar de un sitio a persona: Irse del lugar, sitio o
otro.
concurrencia en que estaba.
[intransitive verb] Dicho de una persona
(del lat. «natare») [intransitive verb] o de un animal: Trasladarse en el agua,
Moverse sobre el agua o sumergido en ayudándose de los movimientos
necesarios, y sin tocar el suelo ni otro
ella sin tocar el fondo.
apoyo.
(del lat. «naufragare») [intransitive
[intransitive verb] Dicho de una
verb] Hundirse un barco en el agua
embarcación: Irse a pique o perderse.
por accidente. Dicho de una persona:
Dicho de una persona: Sufrir el
Sufrir el naufragio del barco en que
naufragio del barco en que viaja.
viaja.
[intransitive verb] Viajar en un buque o
en otra embarcación, generalmente por
(del lat. «navigare»)
[intransitive
mar. U. t. c. tr [i.e., also used as
verb] Ir un vehículo, o ir en un
transitive verb] Hacer viaje o ir por el
vehículo, por el agua. Conducir un
aire en globo, avión u otro vehículo
vehículo, o ir en él, por el aire. Avión.
adecuado. Dicho de un buque o de otra
embarcación: avanzar.
mp-walk; No
aim in
[intransitive verb] noctambular. Vagar [intransitive verb] Andar vagando de
de noche.
noche.
Motion;
Night time
[intransitive verb] Dicho de un cuerpo
[intransitive verb]
Formar ondas
flexible: Moverse formando ondas.
Shake,
movibles una superficie; por ejemplo,
Swing,
[transitive
verb]∫
Mover
algo,
el agua o una bandera movida por el
especialmente una bandera o un pañuelo,
Vibrate
viento. Balancearse en el aire.
formando ondas.
mp-walk
417
Spanish Motion
Verb
oscilar [to
oscillate, to
swing]
partir [to leave]
pasar [to go
through, over,
along,…]
Motion AM
Self-c
Transl
Transl
Semantic
Components
Manner
Path
Path
#
Path
details
1
1
1
pasear [to walk
for pleasure]
Transl
Manner
1
patalear [to
stamp one's feet
on the ground
showing one is
angry]
Self-c
Figure (body part:
feet) + Manner
2
Manner
details
Shake,
Swing,
Vibrate
(del lat. «oscillare»)
[intransitive
verb] Moverse a un lado y a otro una
cosa que está suspendida, que está
sujeta o apoyada por un solo punto o
que no está suficientemente sujeta.
[intransitive verb] Efectuar movimientos
de vaivén a la manera de un péndulo o
de un cuerpo colgado de un resorte o
movido por él.
away from
G
(departure,
source)
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
(del lat. «partïre») [intransitive verb]
[intransitive verb] Empezar a caminar,
Marcharse de un sitio para ir a otro
ponerse en camino.
distante.
pass G
(traversal,
milestone)
(del lat. «passare») [intransitive and
transitive verb] El significado básico
de este verbo es el de ir de un sitio a
otro. En segundo lugar, esta acción
puede implicar atravesar por dentro,
por encima o por al lado de una cosa.
En tercer lugar, la acción de pasar
puede llevar consigo dejar atrás una
cosa yendo más allá de ella,
rebasándola,
superándola
o
venciéndola. En cuarto lugar, el objeto
de interés puede ser el lugar o la cosa
por encima de la cual, por delante de
la cual, etc., se realiza el tránsito.
verb] de «paso» Andar por placer o
por hacer ejercicio, particularmente al
aire libre.
[transitive verb] Llevar, conducir de un
lugar a otro. [transitive verb] Mudar,
trasladar a otro lugar, situación o clase.
U. t. c. [i.e., also used as intransitive
verb and as pronominal verb]. [transitive
verb] Cruzar de una parte a otra.
[intransitive verb] Ir andando por
distracción o por ejercicio. U. t. c. tr y
prn [i.e., also used as transitive verb and
as pronominal verb]
[intransitive verb] Mover las piernas o
Iterative
patas violentamente y con ligereza, para
Motion; State [intransitive verb] Dar golpes con los herir con ellas o en fuerza de un
of Figure
pies en el suelo por enfado.
accidente o dolor. [intransitive verb]
(angry)
Dar patadas en el suelo violentamente y
con prisa por enfado o pesar.
mp-walk;
Leisurely
Motion
418
Spanish Motion
Verb
patear1 [to stamp
one's feet on the
ground showing
one is angry]
Motion AM
Semantic
Components
#
Path
details
Manner
details
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
Iterative
[transitive verb] coloq. Dar golpes con
Motion; State [intransitive verb] Dar patadas en el los pies. [intransitive verb] coloq. Dar
of Figure
suelo en señal de enfado. Patalear.
patadas en señal de enojo, dolor o
(angry)
desagrado.
Self-c
Figure (body part:
feet) + Manner
2
patear2 [to go on
foot around a
place]
Transl
Manner
1
mp-walk
patinar [to skate]
Transl
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
(skate)
patrullar [to
patrol]
Transl
Manner + Cause
2
Vehicle /
Instrument
(patrol car)
pavonearse [to
strut about]
Transl
Manner
1
State of the
Figure
(proud)
pedalear [to
pedal; to move by
pushing pedals
down with one's
feet]
Transl
Manner
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
(pedal)
penetrar [to
enter]
Transl
Path
1
into G
perseguir [to
chase]
Transl
Path
1
after G
[intransitive verb] coloq. Andar mucho,
de «pata»
[transitive verb] (inf.)
haciendo diligencias para conseguir
Recorrer a pie un lugar
algo.
[intransitive verb] Deslizarse o ir
[intransitive verb] Deslizarse sobre resbalando con patines sobre el hielo o
patines.
sobre un pavimento duro, llano y muy
liso.
[intransitive verb] Dicho de una patrulla:
Permanecer en un lugar recorriéndolo
rondar. U. t. c. tr [i.e., also used as
para vigilarlo o mantener el orden en
transitive verb]
él.
[intransitive and pronominal verb]
Hacer vana ostentación de su gallardía o
Mostrar alguien en su actitud que está
de otras prendas. U. m. c. prnl. [i.e.,
satisfecho de sí mismo y se considera
most commonly used as pronominal
importante o superior a los otros.
verb]
mp-walk
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] Mover con los pies [intransitive verb] Poner en movimiento
los pedales de la bicicleta u otra cosa un pedal, y especialmente el de los
semejante.
velocípedos y bicicletas.
(del lat. «peneträre») [intransitive
verb] Pasar una cosa desde el exterior
al interior de un recinto
el lat. «persequi» [transitive verb]
Seguir a alguien que huye para
cogerle.
[transitive verb] Introducirse en un
lugar. U. m. c. intr. [most commonly
used as intransitive verb]
[transitive verb] Seguir a quien va
huyendo, con ánimo de alcanzarle.
419
Spanish Motion
Verb
Motion AM
Semantic
Components
#
pilotar [(ship) to
steer; (car) to
drive; (plane) to
fly]
Transl
Manner
1
pirarse [to go
away]
Transl
Path
1
piruetear [to
pirouette]
Self-c
Manner
1
Transl
Figure (body part:
feet) + Manner
Self-c
Figure (body part:
feet) + Manner
pisar [to tread]
pisotear [to tread
repeatedly and
violently over
something]
planear [(of a
plane, a bird) to
glide]
posarse [to
alight]
Transl
Transl
Manner + Ground
(air)
Path + Manner
Path
details
Manner
details
[transitive verb]
Mar. Dirigir un
Vehicle /
barco, especialmente a la entrada de
Instrument
un puerto o en sitios con dificultades.
(ship,
Conducir como piloto otra cosa
airplane, car)
cualquiera.
away from
G
(departure,
source)
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[transitive verb] Dirigir un buque,
especialmente a la entrada o salida de
puertos, barras, etc. [transitive verb]
Dirigir un automóvil, globo, aeroplano,
etc.
(de «pira» = de origen caló; inf.)
[pronominal verb] Fugarse, irse.
[pronominal verb] Marcharse.
Revolve,
Rotate, Spin
[intransitive verb] Hacer piruetas.
[intransitive verb] Hacer piruetas.
2
mp-walk
[transitive verb] Poner sucesivamente
Low
(del lat. vg. «pinsare») [intransitive
los pies en el suelo al andar. U. m. c. ratings. No
verb] Poner alternativamente los pies
[most commonly used as intransitive significant
en el suelo al andar.
verb]
difference
2
Iterative
Motion;
Violent
Motion
Low
[transitive verb] Pisar algo violenta y
[transitive verb] Pisar repetidamente, ratings. No
repetidamente, con lo que se lo
significant
maltratando o ajando algo.
destroza o estropea
difference
Smooth
Motion
[intransitive verb]
Mantenerse un
avión en el aire, moviéndose o
descendiendo, sin motor. [intransitive
verb] Mantenerse un ave en el aire
con las alas extendidas e inmóviles.
[intransitive verb] Aer. Dicho de un
avión: Descender en planeo. [intransitive
verb] Dicho de un ave: Volar con las
alas extendidas e inmóviles.
mp-fly
verb] del lat. «pausare» Detenerse las
aves, mariposas, etc., en cierto sitio,
después de volar.
[intransitive verb] Dicho de un ave u
otro animal que vuela, o de un avión o
un aparato astronáutico: Situarse en un
lugar o sobre una cosa después de haber
volado. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb]
2
2
down onto
G (arrival,
endpoint)
420
Spanish Motion
Verb
Motion AM
precipitar (se)1
[to (cause to) fall
down from a high
place]
Transl
precipitarse2 [to
run, to hurry to]
Semantic
Components
#
Path
details
Path + Manner
Earth-based
2 orientation:
downwards
Transl
Path + Manner
2
to/towards
G
profundizar [to
get into]
Transl
Path
1
into G
rabear [(of an
animal) to wag]
Self-c
Figure (body part:
tail)
1
rastrear1 [to fly
along at ground
level]
Transl
Ground (at ground
2
level)+ Manner
rastrear2 [to
track]
Transl
rebotar [to
bounce]
Self-c
reclinar (se) [to
lean]
Self-c
AM
Path + Manner
AM
2
Manner
details
Forced
Motion
(Energyhigh)
mp-run
[transitive
verb]
del
lat.
«praecipitare»; Lanzar una cosa por
un precipicio. Despeñar. (más usado [transitive verb] Despeñar, arrojar o
con referencia a personas; «desde, derribar de un lugar alto. U. t. c. prn
por») Lanzar una cosa desde un sitio [i.e., also used as pronominal verb]
alto. [pronominal verb] Lanzarse
desde lo alto.
[intransitive verb] Acudir corriendo a
NO FOUND IN DRAE
un sitio.
mp-run /
mp-jump
[transitive verb] ahondar. U. m. c. [i.e.,
[intransitive verb] («en»)
Llegar
most commonly used as intransitive
hasta más o menos dentro de una cosa.
verb]
[intransitive verb] Menear el rabo.
after G
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] Dicho de un animal:
Menear el rabo hacia una parte y otra.
mp-fly
(de «rastro») [intransitive verb] Volar [intransitive verb] Ir por el aire, pero
casi a ras de tierra.
casi tocando el suelo.
Furtive
Motion
[transitive verb] Perseguir o buscar a
[transitive verb] Seguir el rastro o buscar
alguien o algo siguiendo sus huellas,
algo por él.
materiales o no materiales.
Manner
1
Bounce
Manner
1
Posture
(towards
horizontal)
[intransitive verb] Botar una pelota,
una bola o cosa semejante en el sitio a
donde ha ido a chocar en un primer
bote.
(del lat. «reclinare»; «contra, en,
sobre») [transitive verb] Inclinar una
cosa apoyándola en otra. Inclinar y
apoyar la cabeza; [pronominal verb]
Apoyarse en algo inclinándose.
mp-walk /
mp-run
[intransitive verb] Dicho de un cuerpo
elástico: Botar repetidamente, ya sobre
el terreno, ya chocando con otros
cuerpos.
[transitive verb] Dicho de una cosa,
especialmente del cuerpo o parte de él:
Inclinarlo apoyándolo en otra cosa. U. t.
verb]
421
Spanish Motion
Verb
Motion AM
recorrer [to
move, go around
a place]
Transl
recostar (se) [to
(cause to) lean or
to lie down]
Self-c
regatear [to
dribble]
Transl
Semantic
Components
#
AM
Manner
1
Posture
(horizontal)
Manner
1
Motion in
sports
Transl
Path
1
remar [to row]
Transl
Manner
1
renquear [to
limp]
repatriar [to
repatriate, (cause
to) go back to
one's country
Transl
Manner
details
(Motion) + Ground 1
regresar [to come
back]
remontar [to go
up, to swim up, to
soar]
Path
details
AM
Path
Transl
Manner
Transl
Path + Ground
(country)
AM
Vehicle /
Instrument
(oar, paddle)
2
(del lat. «recurrere») [transitive verb] [transitive verb] Atravesar un espacio o
Ir sucesivamente a distintas partes de lugar en toda su extensión o longitud.
un lugar.
[transitive verb] Efectuar un trayecto.
[transitive verb] Dicho de quien está de
(de «re-» y «costa», costilla)
pie o sentado: Reclinar la parte superior
[transitive verb] («en, sobre») Apoyar
del cuerpo. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
una cosa en algún sitio, en posición
pronominal verb]. [transitive verb]
inclinada; por ejemplo, la cabeza o la
Inclinar algo sobre otra cosa. U. t. c. prn
parte superior del cuerpo. Reclinar.
(«en, sobre») [pronominal verb]
[pronominal verb] Acostarse durante un
Ponerse en un sillón, en la cama, etc.,
breve período de tiempo.
[transitive verb] Hacer regates;
[intransitive verb] Hacer regates.
particularmente, en ciertos deportes.
back to G
mp-walk
mp-walk /
mp-run
[intransitive verb] Mover los remos [intransitive verb] Trabajar con el remo
para impulsar una embarcación.
para impeler la embarcación en el agua.
[transitive verb] Subir una pendiente,
sobrepasarla. Navegar aguas arriba en
[transitive verb] Subir una cosa. Subir
una corriente. Subir o volar muy alto las
por cierto sitio.
aves, Ascender por el aire. [pronominal
verb] Subir, ir hacia arriba.
mp-walk;
Forced
[intransitive verb]
Motion; State
hace un renco.
of Figure
(injured)
1
(de «regreso») (del lat. «regressus»)
[intransitive verb and pronominal [intransitive verb] Volver al lugar de
verb] Ir de nuevo a un sitio de donde donde se partió.
se ha salido. Retornar, volver.
back to G
Earth-based
1 orientation:
upwards
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
Cojear como lo
(del lat. «repatriare») [transitive verb]
Devolver a su patria a alguien que está
expatriado. [pronominal verb] Volver
a su patria el que está expatriado.
[intransitive verb] Andar o moverse
como renco, oscilando a un lado y a otro
a trompicones.
mp-walk
[transitive verb] Devolver algo o a
alguien a su patria. U. t. c. [i.e., also
used as i.e., also used as]. [intransitive
verb] y m. c. [pronominal verb]
422
Spanish Motion
Verb
reptar [to crawl
like a reptile]
resbalarse [to
slide]
retirar (se) [to
remove, to take
away; to retreat]
retornar [to
return, to go
back; to give
back]
Motion AM
Transl
Manner
Transl
Transl
Transl
Semantic
Components
Manner
AM
AM
Path
Path
#
Path
details
Manner
details
1
mp-walk;
Animal-like
→ Contact
[between F
and G]
1
Contact
[between F
and G];
Smooth
Motion;
Uncontrolled
motion?
1
1
retozar [to frolic]
Transl
Manner
1
retroceder [to go
back, to back
down]
Transl
Path
1
away from
G
(departure,
source)
back to G
Playful
Motion
back to G /
backwards
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb]
Andar con el
[intransitive verb] Andar arrastrándose
cuerpo tocando el suelo, como los
como algunos reptiles.
reptiles.
del antig. y dial. «resvarar», de «re-» y
«esvarar») [intransitive verb and
pronominal verb] («en, por, sobre,
entre») Moverse una cosa rozando
suavemente sobre una superficie.
[transitive verb] Mover una cosa para
que deje de estar en contacto con otra
o próxima a otra que se expresa.
[pronominal verb] Moverse alguien
para dejar de tocar algo o alejarse de
ello.
[intransitive verb] Ir o venir de nuevo
una cosa al punto de partida o a la
situación en que antes estuvo.
Regresar, tornar, volver. [transitive
verb] Volver a poner algo en el sitio
donde estaba o en una situación que
antes tuvo. Devolver.
[intransitive verb] Jugar, por ejemplo
los niños o los animales jóvenes,
corriendo, brincando, persiguiéndose
unos a otros, etc.
del lat. «retrocedere») [intransitive
verb] («a, de, en») Marchar hacia
atrás.
[intransitive
verb]
Desplazarse
involuntariamente sobre una superficie
lisa o viscosa sin dejar de rozarla,
Low
normalmente
con
alteración
del
ratings. No
equilibrio. Resbalan los pies sobre el
significant
hielo. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
difference
pronominal verb]. [intransitive verb]
deslizarse (arrastrarse con suavidad por
una superficie).
[transitive verb] Apartar o separar a
alguien o algo de otra persona o cosa o
de un sitio. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb]
[intransitive verb] Volver al lugar o a la
situación en que se estuvo. U. t. c. prn
[transitive verb] Devolver.
Low
[intransitive verb] Saltar y brincar ratings. No
alegremente.
significant
difference
[intransitive verb] Volver hacia atrás.
423
Spanish Motion
Verb
revolotear [to
(cause to) fly
around, to flutter]
rodar [to roll]
(rular)
rodear [to
surround with; to
go round]
Motion AM
Transl
AM
Self-c /
Transl
Self-c
Semantic
Components
Manner+ Ground
(air)
Manner
AM
Manner
#
2
1
1
Path
details
Manner
details
mp-fly;
Revolve,
Rotate, Spin
(turn around)
Revolve,
Rotate, Spin
Path-shape
rondar [to be on
patrol; to prowl
about, around]
Transl
Manner + Cause
2
mp-walk
rotar [to rotate]
Self-c
Manner
1
Revolve,
Rotate, Spin
sacudir (se) [to
shake; to shake
oneself]
Self-c
Manner
1
Shake,
Swing,
Vibrate
AM
[intransitive verb] Volar alrededor de
algo o haciendo giros en un corto
espacio. Moverse una cosa ligera, por
ejemplo un papel, en el aire.[transitive
verb] Lanzar una cosa al aire de modo
que vaya dando vueltas.
(del lat. «rotāre») [intransitive verb]
Dar vueltas una cosa sobre una
superficie, trasladándose de lugar al
darlas; como una pelota o las ruedas
de un carro. [intransitive verb] Dar
vueltas una cosa alrededor de un eje.
[transitive verb]
Estar una cosa
alrededor de otra. Colocarse varias
personas, animales, etc., alrededor de
un sitio. [intransitive verb] Poner una
cosa alrededor de otra.
[transitive verb]
Hacer ronda de
vigilancia o salir los mozos de ronda
por algún sitio. Recorrer los puestos
de vigilancia de una plaza fuerte o un
campamento para inspeccionarlos.
[transitive verb] Seguir a una persona,
acercarse a ella o hablarle con
frecuencia para conseguir de ella
cierta cosa
(del lat. «rotāre») [intransitive verb]
Rodar, dar vueltas alrededor de un eje.
[transitive verb] Mover una cosa con
brusquedad, bien haciéndola dar un
chasquido en el aire, bien a un lado y a
otro; [pronominal verb] (del lat.
«succutere») Quitarse una cosa que se
lleva encima con movimientos del
cuerpo.
[intransitive verb]
Volar haciendo
tornos o giros en poco espacio. Venir
una cosa por el aire dando vueltas.
[transitive verb] Arrojar algo a lo alto
con ímpetu, de suerte que parece que da
vueltas.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
Dar vueltas alrededor de un eje, sin
mudar de lugar, como la piedra de un
molino, o mudando, como la bola que
corre por el suelo.
[intransitive verb] Andar alrededor.
[transitive verb] Poner una o varias
cosas alrededor de otra. U. t. c. prn [i.e.,
[transitive verb] Dar vueltas alrededor de
algo. [intransitive verb] Andar de noche
paseando las calles. U. t. c. tr [i.e., also
used as transitive verb]. [intransitive
verb] Andar de noche visitando una
población para impedir los desórdenes.
U. t. c. tr [i.e., also used as transitive
verb]
[intransitive verb] rodar (dar vueltas
alrededor de un eje).
[transitive verb] Mover violentamente
algo a una y otra parte. U. t. c. prn [i.e.,
424
Spanish Motion
Verb
Motion AM
Semantic
Components
#
salir [to exit, to
go out of]
Transl
saltar [to jump]
Self-c /
Transl
?
Manner
1
seguir [to follow]
Transl
Path
1
sentar (se) [to
(cause to) sit
down]
Self-c
serpentear [to
slither, to
meander]
Transl
subir [to ascend,
to (cause to) go
up]
Transl
Path
AM
AM
1
Path
details
Manner
details
out of G
mp-jump
after G
Manner
1
Posture
(verticaldownwards)
Manner
1
Animal-like
→ Pathshape
Path
up/onto G;
Earth-based
1
orientation:
upwards
(del lat. «salire», saltar) [intransitive
verb] («a, de») Ir fuera de un sitio.
Salir de casa. [pronominal verb]
Marcharse una persona de cierto sitio.
Marcharse un animal del sitio en que
está encerrado. [pronominal verb]
Marcharse una persona de cierto sitio.
Marcharse un animal del sitio en que
está encerrado.
(Del lat. saltāre, intens. de salīre).
[intransitive verb] Levantarse una cosa
con un impulso súbito, del suelo o del
sitio en que está, vertical u
oblicuamente, para caer en el mismo
sitio o en otro que esté al mismo nivel
o más alto o más bajo. [transitive verb]
Saltar o pasar por encima de algo.
(del sup. lat. «sequïre», de «sequi»;
frec. con «a», aunque el complemeno
directo sea de cosa) [transitive verb]
En una marcha, ir después o detrás de
cierta cosa.
Del lat. sedentare, de sedens, -entis. tr.
Forma causativa de «sentarse».
[pronominal verb] Tomar la postura
que consiste en descansar con las
nalgas apoyadas en algún sitio.
[intransitive verb]
Deslizarse
formando ondas. Formar ondas un
camino, el curso de un río, etc.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] Pasar de dentro a
fuera. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as
pronominal verb]. [intransitive verb]
Partir de un lugar a otro.
[intransitive verb] Alzarse con impulso
rápido, separándose de donde se está.
Hyperonym
[transitive verb] Salvar de un salto un
espacio o distancia.
[transitive verb] Ir después o detrás de
alguien. U. t. c. [i.e., also used as i.e.,
also used as]. [intransitive verb]
[transitive verb] Poner o colocar a
alguien en una silla, banco, etc., de
manera que quede apoyado y
descansando sobre las nalgas. U. t. c. prn
[intransitive verb] Andar, moverse o
extenderse, formando vueltas y tornos
como la serpiente.
mp-walk
[transitive verb] Recorrer yendo hacia
del lat. «subïre»(«a») [intransitive arriba, remontar.
[transitive verb]
verb] y [pronominal verb] Ir de un Trasladar a alguien o algo a lugar más
sitio a otro más alto.
alto que el que ocupaba. Subir a un niño
en brazos.
425
Spanish Motion
Verb
sumergir (se) [to
(cause to) go
down into water]
taconear [to tap
shoes (usually
when walking or
dancing)]
Motion AM
Transl
AM
Self-c /
Transl
Semantic
Components
Ground (water) +
Path
Manner
#
2
1
Path
details
down into
G
Manner
details
(del lat. «submergere») [transitive
verb] Introducir una cosa en agua u
otro líquido, de modo que quede
completamente cubierta. [pronominal
verb] Hundirse debajo de la superficie
del agua o de otro líquido.
Noisy
[intransitive verb] Golpetear con los
activity;
tacones en el suelo al andar deprisa,
DANCE;
cosa que hacen particularmente las
Vehicle /
mujeres con los tacones altos. O
Instrument hacerlo rítmicamente en ciertos bailes.
(heels-shoes); Zapateado.
verb] Moverse algo o alguien muy
Unsteady
acusadamente a un lado y a otro
Motion
manteniendo fijo algún punto, como si
se fuese a caer.
(del lat. «tremulare») [intransitive
verb] («de»: ‘de frío, de miedo’;
Shake,
«con»: ‘con el susto’)
Aplicado a
Swing,
personas y cosas, moverse con
Vibrate
sacudidas de muy poca amplitud y
muy rápidas
tambalearse [to
move unsteadily
as if it is going to
fall]
Self-c
Manner
1
temblar [to
shiver, to
tremble]
Self-c
Manner
1
tender (se) [to
(cause to) stretch,
to lay/lie down]
Self-c
Manner
1
Posture
(horizontal)
Manner
1
Forced
Motion
(Energyhigh)
Manner
1
Shake,
Swing,
Vibrate
tirar (se) [to
throw; to throw
oneself]
Transl
tiritar [to shiver,
to tremble]
Self-c
AM
AM
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[transitive verb] Meter algo debajo del
agua o de otro líquido. U. t. c. prn [i.e.,
[intransitive verb] Pisar con fuerza o
brío, produciendo ruido. [intransitive
verb] En ciertos bailes, mover
rítmicamente los pies haciendo ruido con
los tacones en el suelo. U. t. c. tr [i.e.,
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] Moverse a uno y otro
lado, como si se fuese a caer. U. m. c.
prn [i.e., most commonly used as
pronominal verb]
mp-walk
[intransitive
verb]
Agitarse
con
sacudidas de poca amplitud, rápidas y
frecuentes.
[transitive verb] Extender una cosa
[pronominal verb] Echarse, tumbarse a
horizontalmente. [transitive verb and
la larga.
pronominal verb] tumbar[se].
[transitive
verb]
Dejar
caer
[transitive verb] Lanzar una cosa que
intencionadamente algo. [transitive verb]
se tiene cogida por la mano.
Arrojar,
lanzar
en
dirección
[pronominal verb] Lanzarse desde un
determinada.
NO
FOUND
AS
lugar.
PRONOMINAL VERB
[intransitive
verb]
Temblar
o
[intransitive verb] Temblar de frío o
estremecerse de frío o por causa de
por efecto de la fiebre.
fiebre, de miedo, etc.
426
Spanish Motion
Verb
torcer (se)1 [to
turn, to change
direction]
Motion AM
Transl
torcer (se)2 [to
(cause to) bend]
Self-c
transitar [to go
along a place or
way]
Transl
traquetear [to
(cause to) move
repeatedly, to
rattle]
trasladar (se) [to
(cause to) move
from one place to
another]
trepar [to climb]
Self-c
Transl
Transl
Semantic
Components
Path
AM
AM
AM
#
1
Path
details
Manner
details
Change
direction
(del lat. «torquëre») [pronominal verb]
Desviarse del camino debido o de la
marcha favorable o conveniente;
[intransitive verb]
Cambiar de
dirección al marchar, conducir un
vehículo, etc.
[transitive verb] Dicho de una persona o
de una cosa: Desviar la dirección que
llevaba, para tomar otra. U. t. c. [i.e.,
also used as intransitive verb]
Manner
1
Posture
(Bend, Twist, Poner[se] curva o formando ángulo
Curve)
una cosa.
(Motion) +
Ground
1
[intransitive verb] Andar por una
calle, camino, etc., para ir de un sitio a
otro
Manner
Iterative
Motion;
Noisy
Motion
1
[transitive verb] Encorvar o doblar algo.
U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as pronominal
verb]
[transitive verb] Alterar la
posición recta, perpendicular o paralela
que algo tiene con respecto a otra cosa.
U. t. c. prn [i.e., also used as pronominal
verb]
[intransitive verb] Ir o pasar de un punto
a otro por vías o parajes públicos.
[intransitive verb] Viajar o caminar
haciendo tránsitos.
[transitive and intransitive verb] [transitive verb] Mover o agitar algo de
Mover[se] reiteradamente una cosa, una parte a otra. [intransitive verb]
produciendo ruido.
Hacer ruido, estruendo o estrépito.
[transitive verb] Cambiar de lugar una
[transitive verb] Llevar a alguien o algo
cosa o a una persona. [pronominal
de un lugar a otro. U. t. c. prn [i.e., also
verb] Cambiarse de lugar una persona
o una cosa.
(Motion)
Path + Manner
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
2
up/onto G
Use of one's
hands and
legs
[intransitive verb] Subir a un lugar alto o
[intransitive verb] Subir a un lugar
poco accesible valiéndose y ayudándose
escarpado o alto valiéndose de los pies
de los pies y las manos. U. t. c. tr [i.e.,
y las manos.
427
Spanish Motion
Verb
trompicar [to
(cause to) trip
repeatedly]
tropezar [to trip]
trotar1 [(of a
horse, human) to
trot)
trotar2 [(of a
person) to ride a
horse which is
trotting]
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Transl
Transl
AM
Semantic
Components
Manner
Manner
Manner
Manner
#
Path
details
Manner
details
1
Obstructed
Motion;
Iterative
Motion; mpwalk?
1
Obstructed
Motion; mpwalk?
1
mp-walk;
Rate-fast
1
Vehicle /
Instrument
(horse)
Unsteady
Motion
[intransitive
verb]
repetidamente.
[transitive verb] Hacer a alguien tropezar
Tropezar violenta y repetidamente. [intransitive
verb] Dar pasos tambaleantes, tumbos o
vaivenes.
(del sup. lat. vg. «interpediare»)
verb] («con, contra, en») Chocar
involuntariamente con alguien o algo
al ir andando.
(el alto al. medio «trotten», correr)
[intransitive
verb]
Andar
las
caballerías con paso ligero levantando
a la vez el pie y la mano de distinto
lado.
[intransitive] Cabalgar
caballo que trota.
sobre
Dar con los pies en un obstáculo al ir
andando, con lo que se puede caer.
mp-jump
[intransitive verb] Dicho de un caballo:
High
Ir al trote. [intransitive verb] coloq. ratings. No
Dicho de una persona: Andar mucho o significant
con celeridad.
difference
High
un [intransitive verb] Dicho de una persona: ratings. No
Cabalgar en caballo que va al trote.
significant
difference
[intransitive verb] Dicho de una cosa:
(del lat. «vacillare») [intransitive verb]
Moverse indeterminadamente. Dicho de
Moverse una cosa o una persona a un
una cosa: Estar poco firme en su estado,
lado y a otro por falta de estabilidad.
o tener riesgo de caer o arruinarse.
[transitive verb] Pasar un río u otra
(de «vado»)
[transitive verb]
corriente de agua profunda por el vado o
Atravesar un río a pie, en caballería o
por cualquier otro sitio donde se pueda
en un vehículo.
hacer pie.
vacilar [to move
unsteadily]
Self-c
Manner
1
vadear [to wade,
to ford a river]
Transl
Path + Ground
(river)
2
vagabundear [to
wander]
Transl
Manner
1
mp-walk; No
aim in
Motion
vagar [to
wander]
Transl
Manner
1
mp-walk; No vagar (del lat. «vagari») [intransitive [intransitive verb] Andar por varias
aim in
verb] Andar sin dirección o destino partes sin determinación a sitio o lugar,
Motion
fijos
o sin especial detención en ninguno.
pass/cross
G
(traversal)
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] Andar vagabundo.
mp-walk
428
Spanish Motion
Verb
venir [to come]
viajar [to travel]
Motion AM
Transl
Semantic
Components
Path
Transl
Manner
#
1
Shake,
Swing,
Vibrate
Manner
1
virar [(of a
vehicle, esp. a
ship) to swerve]
Transl
Path
1
volar [to move on
the air, to fly]
Transl
Ground (air)
1
AM
Path + Ground
(water) + Manner
Deixis:
towards G
(speaker)
1
Self-c
Transl
Manner
details
Leisurely
Motion;
Vehicle /
Instrument?
vibrar [to
vibrate]
zambullir (se) [to
(cause to) go
down into water
in a violent way]
Path
details
3
Change
direction
down into
G
Forced
Motion
(Energyhigh)
(del lat. «venire») [intransitive verb]
(«a, de, por») Andar o moverse hacia
el lugar donde está el que habla.
Llegar al sitio donde está el que habla
para quedarse en él. prnl. Forma
empleada en vez de «venir» cuando al
significado de «llegar» se añade el de
«dejar» el lugar de donde se parte.
[intransitive verb]
Dicho de una
persona:
caminar.
Dicho de una persona o de una cosa:
Llegar a donde está quien habla.
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] Trasladarse de un [intransitive verb] Trasladarse de un
lugar a otro distante. Visitar diversos lugar a otro, generalmente distante, por
lugares o recorrer diversos países.
cualquier medio de locomoción.
(del lat. «vibrare») [intransitive verb]
Moverse un cuerpo o una parte de él [intransitive verb] Mec. Dicho de un
entre dos posiciones próximas, con cuerpo elástico: Oscilar alternativamente
movimiento rápido y alternativo de la en torno a su posición de equilibrio.
una a la otra.
[transitive verb] Mar. Cambiar de rumbo
quizá del sup. celtolat. «virare», con
o de bordada, pasando de una amura a
influencia del fr. y del port.
otra, de modo que el viento que daba al
[intransitive verb]
(«a, hacia»)
buque por un costado le dé por el
Volverse cambiando de dirección o de
opuesto. U. t. c. [i.e., also used as
orientación,
particularmente
un
intransitive verb]. [intransitive verb]
vehículo
en
marcha
y
más
Mudar de dirección en la marcha de un
particularmente un barco
automóvil u otro vehículo semejante.
(del lat. «volare») [intransitive verb]
[intransitive verb] Ir o moverse por el
(«Echarse a») Moverse por el aire. Se
aire, sosteniéndose con las alas.
aplica lo mismo a las aves u otro
[intransitive verb] Elevarse en el aire y
animal como a los aviones o cualquier
moverse de un punto a otro en un
cosa más pesada que el aire que se
aparato de aviación.
sostenga y mueva en él.
[transitive verb] Sumergir una cosa
bruscamente o sin pensarlo en un
[transitive verb] Meter debajo del agua
líquido (o en un recipiente que lo
con ímpetu o de golpe. U. t. c. prn [i.e.,
contenga).
[pronominal
verb]
Sumergirse alguien en el agua
bruscamente.
429
Spanish Motion
Verb
zancajear [to
walk repeatedly
from one place to
another]
zanquear1 [to
walk with crooked
legs]
Motion AM
Transl
Transl
Semantic
Components
Manner
Manner
#
Path
details
Manner
details
1
[intransitive verb] Andar mucho de una
[intransitive verb]
Andar mucho,
parte a otra, por lo común
yendo de un lado para otro.
aceleradamente.
mp-walk
1
mp-walk;
Characteristic
[intransitive verb] Torcer las piernas [intransitive verb] Torcer las piernas al
use of lower
al andar.
andar.
body (Legscrooked)
mp-walk
[intransitive verb] Andar a grandes
pasos. Ir a grandes pasos o con prisa [intransitive verb] Andar mucho a pie y
de un lado para otro, por ejemplo con prisa de una parte a otra.
haciendo gestiones.
[intransitive verb] coloq. Llevar
[intransitive verb] Ir arrastrando los
arrastrando los vestidos de modo que se
vestidos.
ensucien. Ir zaparrastrando.
mp-walk
[transitive verb] Golpear el suelo con
los pies calzados. Pisar. Hacerlo así en
el baile, lo cual, realizado con los
tacones y con ritmo muy vivo,
constituye un paso de ciertas danzas
españolas.
mp-walk /
mp-jump
zanquear2 [to
stride]
Transl
Manner
1
zaparrastrar [to
move or to walk
dragging one's
clothing]
Transl
Manner
1
Trailing
clothes
1
Noisy
activity;
DANCE;
Vehicle /
Instrument
(shoes);
Self-c /
Transl
Manner
mp-walk;
Iterative
motion from
one place to
another
mp-walk;
Characteristic
use of lower
body (Stepslong)
zapatear [to tap
shoes (usually
when walking or
dancing)
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[transitive verb] Golpear con el zapato.
[transitive verb] Acompañar al tañido
dando palmadas y alternativamente con
las manos en los pies, siguiendo el
mismo compás, especialmente en el
baile del villano.
430
Spanish Motion
Verb
Motion AM
Semantic
Components
#
zarpar [(of a
ship) to set off]
Transl
Path
1
zigzaguear [to
zigzag]
Transl
Manner
1
Path
details
Manner
details
Motor
pattern
Rating
Study
[intransitive verb] (Del it. ant. sarpare,
este de serpe, espacio de la proa donde
se ponía el ancla al zarpar, y este del lat.
(del it. antig. «sarpare») [intransitive
serpens, serpiente, por los maderos en
verb] Marcharse un barco del sitio en
forma de serpentina que delimitaban ese
que está anclado.
espacio). Dicho de un barco o de un
conjunto de ellos: Salir del lugar en que
estaban fondeados o atracados.
away from
G
(departure,
source)
Path-shape
[intransitive
verb]
Moverse [intransitive verb] Serpentear, andar en
describiendo una línea en zigzag.
zigzag.
mp-walk
431
APPENDIX 3
INSTRUCTIONS FOR EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES
APPENDIX 3. INSTRUCTIONS FOR EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES
INSTRUCTIONS FOR STUDY 1
DEFINITION AND FEATURE LISTING 1
ENGLISH:
What is TO MOVE? In other words, which are the features that define the action of
MOVING?
What is TO WALK? In other words, which are the features that define the action of
WALKING?
What is TO RUN? In other words, which are the features that define the action of
RUNNING?
What is TO JUMP? In other words, which are the features that define the action of
JUMPING?
SPANISH:
¿Qué es MOVERSE? Es decir, ¿cuáles son las características que definen la acción
de MOVERSE?
¿Qué es ANDAR? Es decir, ¿cuáles son las características que definen la acción de
ANDAR?
¿Qué es CORRER? Es decir, ¿cuáles son las características que definen la acción de
CORRER?
¿Qué es SALTAR? Es decir, ¿cuáles son las características que definen la acción de
SALTAR?
1
Recall that participants were given only one of the four questions.
433
FREE VERB LISTING2 : ENGLISH
Welcome!
This study is being carried in different countries on different languages. We
would like to know how your language expresses the ways in which people move.
You will be asked to answer a question by providing a list of verbs on the back of
this page.
Please, do not turn the page yet!
You will have 1 minute to perform this task. I will let you know when to start and
when to stop.
Thanks for your collaboration!
2
Recall that participants were given only one of the following questions: In what ways can a human
move? In what ways can a human walk? In what ways can a human run? In what ways can a human
jump?
434
FREE VERB LISTING3 : SPANISH
¡Bienvenido!
Este estudio se está llevando a cabo en diferentes países y sobre idiomas
distintos. Nos gustaría saber como tu idioma expresa las maneras en las que la gente
se mueve. Tienes que responder una pregunta dando un listado de verbos en el
reverso de esta página.
Por favor, no des la vuelta a la página aún.
Tendrás un minuto para hacer esta tarea. Te diremos cuando comenzar y cuando
terminar.
¡Muchas gracias por tu colaboración!
3
Recall that participants were given one of the following four questions: ¿De qué modos puede una
persona moverse? ¿De qué modos puede una persona andar?¿De qué modos puede una persona
correr?¿De qué modos puede una persona saltar?
435
RATING STUDY 4 : ENGLISH
Welcome to this study!
This booklet contains a list of questions grouped into three blocks. Each question is
followed by a rating scale. Your task is to answer the questions by marking an X on
the scale.
For example:
Is SIPPING a way of DRINKING?
X
Definitely
a way
Not sure
a way
Definitely not
a way
Is SLEEPING a way of WORKING?
X
Definitely
a way
Not sure
a way
Definitely not
a way
There are no right or wrong answers, we are just interested in your judgements.
Please answer each question in turn, and do not skip any questions, or look ahead in
the booklet.
If you have any questions or concerns, please ask the experimenter now.
Thanks for your collaboration!
4
These instructions correspond to the way of question. Recall that half of the English participants got
the way of question and half the kind of question. The instructions were the same except for the use of
kind of instead of way of.
436
RATING STUDY 5 : SPANISH
¡Bienvenido a este estudio!
Este cuadernillo contiene una serie de preguntas divididas en tres bloques. Cada
pregunta va seguida de una escala. Tienes que responder cada pregunta escribiendo
una X en la escala.
Por ejemplo:
¿Es SORBER una manera de BEBER?
X
Absolutamente
es una manera
No es seguro
una manera
Definitivamente
no es una manera
¿Es DORMIR una manera de TRABAJAR?
X
Absolutamente
es una manera
No es seguro
una manera
Definitivamente
no es una manera
No hay respuesta correcta o errónea, simplemente nos interesa tu opinión. Por favor,
ve respondiendo cada pregunta sin saltarte ninguna y sin mirar más adelante.
Si tienes alguna pregunta o comentario, por favor pregunta al experimentador ahora.
¡Gracias por tu colaboración!
5
Recall that half of the Spanish participants got the manera de question and half the tipo de question.
437
APPENDIX 4
MANNER VERBS FROM THE FREE LISTING STUDY
APPENDIX 4. MANNER VERBS FROM THE FREE LISTING STUDY
ENGLISH AND SPANISH MANNER VERBS PER CATEGORY (ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
MOVE
bend
snowboard wave
bicycle, bike spring
wiggle
bounce
sprint
wobble
climb
squat
crawl
step
dance
stomp
drive
stretch
duck-walk
stroll
flee
strut
fly
stumble
glide
sway
hop
swim
jog
swing
jump
teeter
leap
throw
pace
tiptoe
run
totter
shake
trip
shiver
trot
shuffle
turn
skate
twirl
ski
twist
skip
waddle
slide
walk
slither
waltz
53 TYPES
WALK
amble
step
careen
storm
frollick
stretch
gallop
stride
glide
stroll
hop
strut
jog
travel
jump
trot
limp
waddle
lope
lumber
march
moonwalk
pace
power-walk
propel
run
saunter
sidle
skip
slide
slither
sneak
sprint
stamp
34 TYPES
RUN
dart
gallop
hop
jog
leap
race
skip
speed
sprint
trample
walk
JUMP
bounce
bound
flip
glide
hop
jump
leap
lift
push
release
rise
run
skip
spring
11 TYPES 14 TYPES
MOVERSE
agacharse saltar
andar
sentarse
arrastrarse tambalearse
bailar
temblar
balancearse trepar
brincar
trotar
bucear
viajar
caminar
volar
cojear
conducir
correr
deslizarse
esquiar
gatear
girarse
haldar
huir
levantarse
nadar
pasear
patear
patinar
pedalear
reptar
saltar
32 TYPES
ANDAR
arrastrarse
brincar
caminar
cojear
correr
corretear
deambular
deslizarse
esprintar
gatear
pasear
patear
pedalear
rondar
saltar
trotar
vagabundear
vagar
CORRER
acelerar
aligerar
andar
apresurarse
arrastrarse
brincar
caminar
corretear
galopar
gatear
huir
pasear
saltar
trotar
zanquear
SALTAR
agacharse
andar
bailar
botar
brincar
cojear
correr
girar
impulsarse
rebotar
tambalearse
tirarse
trotar
18 TYPES
15 TYPES
13 TYPES
439
APPENDIX 5
DATA FROM RATING STUDY
APPENDIX 5. DATA FROM RATING STUDY
ENGLISH DATA FROM RATING STUDY
VERB
MEAN
WALK
ANOVAs
sd
se
MEAN
RUN
sd
se
MEAN
JUMP
sd
se
Paired t-test with Bonferroni
correction
amble
F(2,51) = 68.165
walk>run-jump
85,11 24,70
5,82
13,22 15,45
3,64
12,28 23,12
5,45
bolt
F(2,51) = 11.312
run>walk-jump
37,33 37,09
8,74
86,06 24,46
5,77
39,83 40,24
9,48
bounce
F(2,51) = 15.553
jump>walk>run
38,72 38,92
9,17
32,39 39,37
9,28
90,39 21,21
5,00
bound
F(2,51) = 0.738, p = 0.483
50,89 33,18
7,82
64,78 36,03
8,49
62,33 40,33
9,50
canter
F(2,51) = 5.734
41,72 37,09
8,74
73,28 33,83
7,97
35,72 36,23
8,54
caper
F(2,51) = 1.627, p = 207
46,89 33,86
7,98
39,39 34,83
8,21
26,94 31,77
7,49
cavort
F(2,51) = 1.724, p = 0.189
44,94 35,20
8,30
26,50 34,48
8,13
26,11 34,63
8,16
charge
F(2,51) = 15.960
run>walk>jump
49,67 37,61
8,87
84,33 21,24
5,01
23,94 35,23
8,30
chase
F(2,51) = 25.186
run>walk>jump
58,11 36,57
8,62
87,11 25,61
6,04
15,78 27,68
6,52
clump
F(2,51) = 7.702
walk>run>jump
49,28 34,65
8,17
24,22 28,56
6,73
13,22 19,44
4,58
crawl
F(2,51) = 12.085
walk>run>jump
43,72 40,98
9,66
11,39 15,57
3,67
4,67
5,17
1,22
creep
F(2,51) = 166.424
walk>run>jump
89,72 12,48
2,94
16,94 21,94
5,17
4,83
6,84
1,61
dart
F(2,51) = 6.517
run>walk>jump
49,44 36,98
8,72
75,00 39,03
9,20
30,00 36,47
8,60
dash
F(2,51) = 19.189
run>walk>jump
48,22 38,58
9,09
85,33 31,67
7,46
20,89 31,59
7,45
dodder
F(2,51) = 20.117
walk>run>jump
72,39 31,38
7,40
24,78 28,83
6,80
17,83 23,48
5,53
F(2,51) = 3.174, p = 0.05
run-walk>jump
31,50 33,79
7,96
42,22 39,60
9,33
14,39 25,36
(walk-run) t(17) = -1.168, p
5,98 =.259
F(2,51) = 29.151
walk>run>jump
72,00 31,11
7,33
19,89 21,60
5,09
12,39 22,76
5,36
F(2,51) = 7.498
walk>run>jump
41,67 39,02
9,20
21,67 22,60
5,33
6,78 13,20
flee
F(2,51) = 15.768
run>walk>jump
41,28 36,66
8,64
84,11 21,90
5,16
25,50 36,42
8,58
flounder
F(2,51) = 1.885, p = 0.162
41,72 35,83
8,45
21,39 32,04
7,55
24,00 34,58
8,15
dribble
edge
file
run> walk-jump
(walk-run) t(17) = 1.972, p =
3,11 0.065, *marginal significance
441
VERB
MEAN
WALK
ANOVAs
sd
se
MEAN
RUN
sd
se
MEAN
JUMP
sd
se
frisk
F(2,51) = 0.069, p = 0.933
27,89 28,07
6,62
29,11 35,55
8,38
25,17 33,55
7,91
frolic
F(2,51) = 0.121, p = 0.866
38,44 37,55
8,85
32,56 36,11
8,51
37,22 39,88
9,40
gallop
F(2,51) = 16.409
28,44 34,89
8,22
90,00 16,07
3,79
48,39 42,08
9,92
gambol
F(2,51) = 1.225, p = 0.302
48,61 30,08
7,09
37,83 31,49
7,42
31,72 36,42
8,58
goosestep
F(2,51) = 73.015
walk>run>jump
85,72 16,06
3,78
20,11 22,51
5,31
13,33 20,44
4,82
F(2,51) = 9.555
run-walk>jump
44,94 39,11
9,22
55,94 38,84
9,16
9,83 15,47
hike
F(2,51) = 118.999
walk>run>jump
93,17 11,35
2,68
24,67 28,17
6,64
5,33
hobble
F(2,51) = 39.775
walk>run>jump
89,11 13,95
3,29
22,94 32,44
hop
F(2,51) = 40.521
jump>walk>run
20,67 27,78
6,55
hound
F(2,51) = 6.072
run>walk>jump
32,00 31,16
F(2,51) = 8.998
run-walk>jump
hurtle
F(2,51) = 15.954
inch
hasten
run>jump>walk
correction
(walk-run) t(17) = -1.051, p =
3,65 0.308
6,67
1,57
7,65
17,61 30,11
7,10
28,94 35,82
8,44
94,11 10,08
2,38
7,34
54,39 35,90
8,46
18,11 26,83
6,32
69,39 39,05
9,20
65,61 29,79
7,02
25,17 34,55
(walk-run) t(17) = 0.406, p =
8,14 0.690
run>walk-jump
28,44 36,15
8,52
82,44 29,48
6,95
24,11 37,41
8,82
F(2,51) = 20.959
walk>run-jump
75,44 33,46
7,89
17,89 31,67
7,46
16,06 28,57
6,73
jog
F(2,51) = 17.709
run>walk-jump
29,11 33,21
7,83
81,61 24,31
5,73
27,44 34,63
8,16
leap
F(2,51) = 26.222
jump>walk-run
29,22 29,36
6,92
27,17 35,30
8,32
90,78 24,13
5,69
limp
F(2,51) = 27.018
walk>run-jump
88,11 15,48
3,65
27,89 35,94
8,47
24,39 32,15
7,58
F(2,51) = 2.794, p = 0.7
walk>run>jump
59,78 36,15
8,52
40,22 38,28
9,02
31,17 36,88
(walk-run) t(17) = 1. 920, p =
8,69 0.72 *marginal significance
lumber
F(2,51) = 9.423
walk>jump-run
62,67 35,98
8,48
20,17 26,55
6,26
23,61 35,44
8,35
lurch
F(2,51) = 6.596
walk>run>jump
64,72 37,37
8,81
29,22 35,21
8,30
25,56 34,57
8,15
march
F(2,51) = 42.274
walk>run>jump
96,78
6,75
1,59
35,39 36,16
8,52
15,56 30,62
7,22
meander
F(2,51) = 42.693
walk>run>jump
90,89 14,46
3,41
25,17 33,49
7,89
17,00 27,30
6,43
mince
F(2,51) = 7.790
walk>run>jump
66,78 40,41
9,52
29,56 38,58
9,09
20,89 30,10
7,09
hurry
lope
442
VERB
mosey
MEAN
WALK
ANOVAs
sd
se
MEAN
RUN
sd
se
MEAN
JUMP
sd
se
correction
F(2,51) = 33.061
walk>run>jump
85,72 25,24
5,95
22,00 32,13
7,57
16,39 27,44
6,47
F(2,51) = 5.045
walk-run>jump
50,06 40,56
9,56
49,11 33,68
7,94
19,28 22,34
(walk-run) t(17) = 0.107 , p =
5,27 0.916
F(2,51) = 24.382
walk>run>jump
91,67 12,96
3,05
52,61 42,53 10,02
19,00 30,87
7,28
F(2,51) = 2.640, p = 0.08
walk-run>jump
48,50 42,66 10,05
33,89 35,10
8,27
20,17 32,47
(walk-run) t(17) = 1.498, p =
7,65 .153
F(2,51) = 5.574
walk>run-jump
38,50 39,66
9,35
11,78 16,63
3,92
10,61 23,69
5,58
walk>run>jump
89,17 24,84
5,86
25,78 30,94
7,29
14,67 27,92
6,58
walk>run>jump
56,78 35,72
8,42
29,78 30,33
7,15
22,17 29,77
7,02
walk>run>jump
86,50 28,88
6,81
22,44 28,61
6,74
10,94 14,57
3,44
F(2,51) = 11.267
walk-jump>run
76,89 27,93
6,58
30,39 35,45
8,36
70,94 32,13
(walk-jump) t(17) = 0.549, p=
7,57 0.590
promenade
F(2,51) = 30.101
walk>run>jump
85,00 29,64
6,99
26,28 33,06
7,79
13,11 25,62
6,04
prowl
F(2,51) = 43.913
walk>run>jump
78,39 30,91
7,29
24,56 27,93
6,58
5,86
1,38
race
F(2,51) = 28.237
run>walk>jump
40,50 33,02
7,78
94,00 12,52
2,95
27,33 33,72
7,95
ramble
F(2,51) = 45.463
walk>run>jump
90,50 21,42
5,05
25,50 27,24
6,42
15,11 27,96
6,59
F(2,51) = 2.553, p = 0.088 walk-run>jump
28,56 30,42
7,17
24,22 32,77
7,72
9,17 13,82
roam
F(2,51) = 25.078
77,17 29,75
7,01
28,56 32,22
7,60
11,89 23,53
5,55
romp
F(2,51) = 0.199, p = 0.820
41,44 34,79
8,20
33,78 37,75
8,90
38,39 37,47
8,83
rove
F(2,51) = 12.005
walk>run>jump
64,22 34,34
8,09
42,00 34,78
8,20
14,39 20,36
4,80
F(2,51) = 16.447
run-walk>jump
67,61 33,89
7,99
79,44 30,79
7,26
21,06 32,04
(walk-run) t(17) = -1.493, p =
7,55 0.154
sashay
F(2,51) = 5.097
walk>jump-run
61,06 36,66
8,64
29,67 26,89
6,34
31,94 34,32
8,09
saunter
F(2,51) = 16.828
walk>run>jump
78,61 30,64
7,22
35,78 39,79
9,38
16,22 27,31
6,44
scamper
F(2,51) = 8.743
run-walk>jump
61,67 36,53
8,61
77,22 30,81
7,26
29,28 37,57
8,85 (walk-run) t(17) = -1.268, p =
nip
pace
pad
paddle
parade
F(2,51) = 37.061
perambulate F(2,51) = 5.796
plod
F(2,51) = 47.983
prance
reel
rush
walk>run>jump
5,17
(walk-run) t(17) = 0.426, p =
3,26 0.675
443
VERB
scoot
scud
MEAN
WALK
ANOVAs
F(2,51) = 4.107
run-walk>jump
F(2,51) = 0.297, p = 0.745
sd
se
MEAN
RUN
sd
se
MEAN
JUMP
sd
se
correction
0.222
42,39 34,03
8,02
52,83 40,96
9,65
19,67 30,75
(walk-run) t(17) = -0.844, p =
7,25 0.411
27,56 25,48
6,01
34,56 28,23
6,65
30,94 28,03
6,61
F(2,51) = 9.999
run>walk>jump
55,56 37,58
8,86
73,72 35,33
8,33
21,50 33,70
F(2,51) = 9.419
run-walk>jump
56,44 36,57
8,62
57,61 33,80
7,97
16,56 25,53
(walk-run) t(17) = -0.834, p =
7,94 0.084 *marginal significance
(walk-run) t(17) = -0.111, p =
6,02 0.913
shamble
F(2,51) = 7.830
walk>run>jump
57,56 35,46
8,36
33,33 32,46
7,65
15,56 27,47
6,47
shoot
F(2,51) = 1.870, p = 0.16
31,39 36,13
8,52
42,61 41,61
9,81
18,33 35,03
8,26
shuffle
F(2,51) = 67.041
walk>run>jump
90,89 12,87
3,03
24,94 32,30
7,61
9,67 17,08
4,03
sidle
F(2,51) = 8.517
walk>run>jump
53,56 34,05
8,03
21,17 27,78
6,55
15,83 26,67
6,29
F(2,51) = 3.422
walk-run>jump
61,28 37,06
8,74
49,22 36,25
8,54
29,89 35,63
(walk-run) t(17) = 1.112, p =
8,40 0.281
F(2,51) = 9.502
jump>walk-run
46,78 35,28
8,32
43,72 37,97
8,95
86,00 21,74
5,12
F(2,51) = 3.689
walk-run>jump
49,50 35,21
8,30
43,11 34,04
8,02
20,67 28,33
(walk-run) t(17) = 0.770, p =
6,68 0.452
slide
F(2,51) = 9.822
walk>run>jump
37,06 32,17
7,58
14,11 24,68
5,82
slink
F(2,51) = 5.367
walk>run-jump
60,39 40,69
9,59
27,61 29,11
slog
F(2,51) = 2.125, p = 0.130
47,61 38,86
9,16
slouch
F(2,51) = 1.421, p = 0.251
23,61 30,92
scurry
scuttle
skedaddle
skip
skitter
sneak
3,76
0,89
6,86
25,22 37,17
8,76
40,50 36,80
8,67
23,06 34,53
8,14
7,29
13,78 26,00
6,13
8,67 23,65
5,57
7,87
3,00
F(2,51) = 23.973
sommersault F(2,51) = 18.404
speed
F(2,51) = 27.254
walk>jump>run
77,11 27,37
6,45
15,50 25,92
6,11
23,28 33,39
jump>run-walk
12,50 17,90
4,22
12,89 24,76
5,84
65,83 42,76 10,08
run>walk>jump
40,28 40,67
9,59
93,33 11,85
2,79
18,44 33,83
7,97
spring
F(2,51) = 14.411
jump>run>walk
47,33 33,77
7,96
52,00 35,83
8,45
94,22
8,69
2,05
sprint
F(2,51) = 49.003
run>jump-walk
21,94 33,15
7,81
98,39
5,30
1,25
23,83 31,11
7,33
444
VERB
MEAN
WALK
ANOVAs
sd
se
MEAN
RUN
sd
se
MEAN
JUMP
sd
se
correction
stagger
F(2,51) = 61.974
walk>run>jump
88,06 15,18
3,58
21,89 26,96
6,35
10,39 23,96
5,65
stalk
F(2,51) = 32.277
walk>run>jump
74,00 35,18
8,29
18,00 19,77
4,66
7,28 13,51
3,18
stomp
F(2,51) = 9.239
walk>jump>run
73,11 31,84
7,50
24,56 34,15
8,05
34,89 40,09
9,45
streak
F(2,51) = 16.747
run>walk>jump
41,56 26,82
6,32
75,33 31,16
7,34
16,94 32,87
7,75
stride
F(2,51) = 17.235
walk>run>jump
91,17 15,24
3,59
48,56 44,62 10,52
28,44 31,47
7,42
strut
F(2,51) = 33.622
walk>run>jump
86,78 25,00
5,89
24,94 26,66
6,28
17,06 31,71
7,47
stump
F(2,51) = 4.255
walk>jump>run
44,56 33,07
7,79
16,39 19,53
4,60
26,11 33,51
7,90
F(2,51) = 2.778, p = 0.07
walk-run>jump
34,39 35,37
8,34
34,56 37,30
8,79
12,22 23,77
(walk-run) t(17) = -0.017, p =
5,60 0.987
tiptoe
F(2,51) = 51.083
walk>run-jump
84,17 30,29
7,14
12,94 17,99
4,24
13,17 23,25
5,48
toddle
totter
F(2,51) = 22.703
walk>run>jump
74,78 31,06
7,32
26,00 27,86
6,57
15,11 25,69
6,06
F(2,51) = 23.745
walk>run>jump
83,50 24,39
5,75
33,22 34,45
8,12
18,39 29,44
6,94
traipse
F(2,51) = 13.444
walk>run>jump
77,39 33,07
7,80
32,39 33,93
8,00
25,50 30,74
7,25
tramp
F(2,51) = 11.212
walk>jump-run
67,28 35,14
8,28
25,00 26,84
6,33
25,33 29,87
7,04
trek
F(2,51) = 86.551
walk>run>jump
92,06 11,77
2,77
26,17 28,35
6,68
8,56 16,33
3,85
trip
F(2,51) = 1.021
29,33 34,10
8,04
22,67 30,45
7,18
37,94 31,84
7,50
troop
F(2,51) = 9.556
walk>run>jump
68,22 35,77
8,43
28,22 29,92
7,05
23,17 35,62
8,39
F(2,51) = 3.604
run-walk>jump
66,61 28,96
6,83
74,22 33,64
7,93
45,11 38,01
(walk-run) t(17) = -0.680, p =
8,96 0.506
trudge
F(2,51) = 50.838
walk>jump>run
90,67 11,78
2,78
14,00 25,66
6,05
23,72 32,46
7,65
vault
F(2,51) = 18.259
jump>run>walk
13,61 17,69
4,17
33,11 32,67
7,70
74,67 38,68
9,12
waddle
F(2,51) = 28.816
walk>run>jump
81,94 24,16
5,70
33,00 37,05
8,73
15,94 26,54
6,26
wade
F(2,51) = 35.279
walk>run>jump
71,39 34,52
8,14
14,94 18,09
4,26
10,17 15,99
3,77
wander
F(2,51) = 103.843
walk>run>jump
97,17
5,97
1,41
24,61 32,73
7,71
8,88
2,09
sweep
trot
7,11
445
VERB
MEAN
WALK
ANOVAs
sd
se
MEAN
RUN
sd
se
MEAN
JUMP
sd
se
whisk
F(2,51) = 13.756
run>walk-jump
22,83 26,15
6,16
65,56 30,53
7,20
21,11 29,54
6,96
whiz(z)
F(2,51) = 20.745
run>walk>jump
38,89 33,50
7,90
79,39 28,85
6,80
15,28 27,97
6,59
zoom
F(2,51) = 12.933
run>walk>jump
31,44 35,26
8,31
75,00 35,42
8,35
19,00 33,35
7,86
correction
446
SPANISH DATA FROM RATING STUDY
VERB
MEAN
WALK
ANOVAs
sd
se
MEAN
RUN
sd
se
MEAN
JUMP
sd
se
Paired t-test with Bonferroni correction
acechar
F(2, 51) = 11.550
walk>run >jump
50,78 40,50
9,55
16,50 25,77 6,07
6,72 14,07
3,32
acelerar
F(2, 51) = 25.448
run>walk>jump
48,11 36,21
8,53
84,44 25,15 5,93
13,44 27,04
6,37
acompañar
F(2, 51) = 14.515
walk>run >jump
49,11 41,67
9,82
13,39 19,01 4,48
6,31
1,49
aligerar
F(2, 51) = 21.930
run>walk>jump
70,56 37,36
8,80
82,83 27,05 6,38
18,39 27,50
6,48
ambular
F(2, 51) = 28.089
walk>run >jump
78,39 31,07
7,32
36,22 34,34 8,09
8,72 17,00
4,01
anadear
F(2, 51) = 11.915
walk>run >jump
55,78 34,83
8,21
27,56 29,66 6,99
10,00 18,01
4,24
apresurarse
F(2, 51) = 23.588
run>walk>jump
56,33 35,09
8,27
73,22 36,92 8,70
6,39 13,07
arrastrar (se)
F(2, 51) = 10.321
walk>run >jump
43,72 38,57
9,09
17,72 28,67 6,76
2,06
2,84
0,67
brincar
F(2, 51) = 35.810
jump>walk>run
44,44 37,09
8,74
26,39 29,08 6,85
100,17
2,98
0,70
callejear
F(2, 51) = 13.232
walk>run >jump
69,50 39,20
9,24
34,67 38,80 9,14
10,22 24,08
5,68
caminar
F(2, 51) = 40.613
walk>run >jump
94,89 19,72
4,65
28,83 33,82 7,97
16,06 29,12
6,86
chancletear
F(2, 51) = 31.596
walk>jump>run
79,39 25,44
6,00
13,56 25,71 6,06
19,94 30,73
7,24
contonearse
F(2, 51) = 22.511
walk>run=jump
65,50 33,91
7,99
13,22 20,74 4,89
13,17 24,65
5,81
contramarchar F(2, 51) = 11.554
walk>run>jump
60,11 36,31
8,56
37,39 30,17 7,11
12,00 21,87
5,16
corretear
F(2, 51) = 30.608
run-walk>jump
81,22 30,43
7,17
91,83 16,67 3,93
24,72 33,05
7,79 (walk-run) t(17) = -1.195, p = 0.249
culebrear
F(2, 51) = 8.390
walk>run>jump
54,50 40,40
9,52
32,72 34,19 8,06
10,33 18,37
4,33
deambular
F(2, 51) = 91.800
walk>run>jump
91,61 14,14
3,33
22,44 29,20 6,88
5,72 12,93
3,05
desacelerar
F(2, 51) = 5.961
walk-run>jump
37,89 33,27
7,84
24,94 32,86 7,74
5,89 12,70
2,99 (walk- run) t (17) = 1.180, p = 20.254
desandar
F(2, 51) = 21.408
walk>run-jump
56,94 41,10
9,69
9,22 14,59 3,44
5,72 12,77
3,01
desfilar
F(2, 51) = 116.049
walk>run-jump
92,72 15,82
3,73
18,11 23,11 5,45
8,17 14,48
3,41
deslizarse
F(2, 51) = 5.074
walk-run > jump
45,56 39,30
9,26
43,17 39,18 9,24
10,67 22,71
3,56
3,08 (walk-run) t(17) = -2.350, p = 0.031
5,35 (walk- run) t (17) = 0.203, p = 0.842
447
VERB
MEAN
WALK
ANOVAs
enconvarse
F(2, 51) = 1.510, P = 0.231
errar
F(2, 51) = 11.649
esprintar
sd
13,17 24,32
se
MEAN
RUN
sd
se
MEAN
JUMP
sd
se
5,73
8,28 15,55 3,66
3,28
6,44
1,52
walk>run>jump
50,06 43,92 10,35
18,50 28,94 6,82
1,89
2,91
0,69
F(2, 51) = 17.164
run>walk>jump
55,28 37,24
8,78
89,00 27,09 6,39
24,28 34,30
8,08
esquivar
F(2, 51) = 3.622
run-walk>jump
47,50 34,45
8,12
49,94 30,73 7,24
24,00 30,47
7,18 (walk- run) t (17) = -0.287, p = 0.778
fugarse
F(2, 51) = 13.945
run>walk>jump
33,28 37,05
8,73
69,11 37,95 8,94
10,61 23,58
5,56
galopar
F(2, 51) = 4.779
run >walk-jump
61,44 38,14
8,99
92,00 15,70 3,70
59,06 45,95 10,83
gatear
F(2, 51) = 21.320
walk>run>jump
68,28 39,24
9,25
21,72 32,57 7,68
4,56 12,35
2,91
huir
F(2, 51) = 12.287
run>walk>jump
45,17 40,36
9,51
69,11 40,04 9,44
12,06 19,38
4,57
merodear
F(2, 51) = 40.798
walk>run-jump
78,33 33,80
7,97
14,83 23,27 5,49
8,56 16,99
4,00
noctambular
F(2, 51) = 17.052
walk>run-jump
60,89 42,42 10,00
9,00 17,34 4,09
10,94 25,29
5,96
patear
F(2, 51) = 10.436
walk>run>jump
64,28 39,80
9,38
26,83 35,26 8,31
14,22 25,90
6,11
pavonearse
F(2, 51) = 7.966
walk>run>jump
45,00 43,25 10,19
14,94 21,31 5,02
8,28 16,43
3,87
pisar
F(2, 51) = 1.661, p = 0.2
30,50 35,44
8,35
12,94 24,59 5,80
17,56 28,86
6,80
pisotear
F(2, 51) = 1.415, p = 0.252
26,22 24,61
5,80
12,17 18,52 4,36
19,89 30,71
7,24
precipitarse
F(2, 51) = 3.190, p = 0.05
run-jump>walk
22,11 28,72
6,77
51,94 34,24 8,07
39,00 42,32
9,98 (run-jump) t (17) = 0.967, p = 0.347
rastrear
F(2, 51) = 8.331
walk-run>jump
50,94 38,71
9,12
33,17 35,21 8,30
8,17 15,98
3,77 (walk-run) t (17) = 1.648, p = 0.118
recorrer
F(2, 51) = 20.133
walk>run>jump
71,89 34,26
8,08
49,72 32,42 7,64
10,67 18,76
4,42
regatear
F(2, 51) = 2.588, p = 0.08
walk-run >jump
44,61 43,83 10,33
41,22 39,55 9,32
18,17 28,89
6,81 (walk-run) t (17) = 0.315 , p = 0.757
renquear
F(2, 51) = 26.037
walk>run-jump
84,94 19,71
4,64
32,28 36,68 8,65
22,50 24,62
5,80
resbalarse
F(2, 51) = 0.951, p = 0.39
15,28 22,55
5,31
29,39 38,16 8,99
21,00 29,93
7,06
retozar
F(2, 51) = 0.024, p = 9.76
19,33 22,17
5,23
21,17 30,37 7,16
20,72 25,71
6,06
rondar
F(2, 51) = 22.319
walk>run-jump
67,72 39,05
9,20
14,56 23,69 5,58
7,89 22,70
5,35
serpentear
F(2, 51) = 21.714
walk>run>jump
73,28 28,83
6,80
28,83 37,64 8,87
10,56 18,42
4,34
448
VERB
MEAN
WALK
ANOVAs
sd
se
MEAN
RUN
sd
se
MEAN
JUMP
sd
se
taconear
F(2, 51) = 11.791
walk>jump>run
63,67 36,97
8,71
10,17 17,84 4,21
32,22 40,32
9,50
tambalearse
F(2, 51) = 13.975
walk>run>jump
57,61 43,41 10,23
17,67 27,84 6,56
10,67 18,20
4,29
tropezar
F(2, 51) = 3.81
jump>walk>run
18,33 23,80
5,61
7,50 20,20 4,76
33,11 38,08
8,98 (walk-jump) t(17) = -2.224, p = 0.040
trotar
F(2, 51) = 0.45, p = 0.637
72,33 33,82
7,97
81,56 27,89 6,57
80,22 32,00
7,54
vagar
F(2, 51) = 75.772
walk>run-jump
88,94 19,50
4,60
19,28 29,62 6,98
6,22 12,33
2,91
zancajear
F(2, 51) = 7.073
walk>run-jump
79,33 30,65
7,22
45,61 32,43 7,64
41,00 36,78
8,67
zanquear
F(2, 51) = 4.015
walk>run-jump
75,11 24,63
5,81
48,33 35,57 8,38
48,61 36,20
8,53
zaparrastrar
F(2, 51) = 9.185
walk>run-jump
51,06 39,11
9,22
18,28 24,44 5,76
11,88 20,12
4,74
zapatear
F(2, 51) = 7.570
walk-jump>run
53,50 39,27
9,26
9,94 17,19 4,05
33,22 39,38
9,28 (walk-jump) t (17) =1.588, p = 0.131
zigzaguear
F(2, 51) = 17.732
walk>run>jump
74,61 22,15
5,22
51,72 36,84 8,68
19,56 24,91
5,87 (walk-run) t(17) = 2.063, p = 0.056
449
LA EXPRESIÓN DEL MOVIMIENTO EN INGLÉS Y EN ESPAÑOL:
UNA PERSPECTIVA LINGÜÍSTICO-COGNITIVA,
TIPOLÓGICA Y PSICOLINGÜÍSTICA
Introducción
El movimiento es un dominio fundamental en nuestra experiencia sensorial y en la
interacción con el mundo que nos rodea; está presente en nuestras acciones diarias y
en nuestras necesidades comunicativas. No obstante, se ha observado que las lenguas
difieren de un modo sistemático en la expresión lingüística de este dominio.
Parte del trabajo de Leonard Talmy (1972, 1985, 1991, 2000a, 2000b) se ha
centrado en desvelar si, a la hora de expresar lingüísticamente un evento de
movimiento, las lenguas siguen un patrón único (es decir, un universal) o siguen
varios (esto es, una tipología). Según este autor, “[t]he basic Motion event consists of
one object (the Figure) moving or located with respect to another object (the
reference object or Ground)” (2000b: 25). Es decir, un evento de movimiento
consiste en un objeto (la Figura) que se mueve o que está situada con respecto a otro
objeto (el objeto de referencia o Base). Para Talmy los eventos de movimiento
engloban situaciones que contienen tanto desplazamiento (por ejemplo, Pedro fue a
casa) como situaciones estáticas (por ejemplo, la lámpara estaba en la mesa). Un
evento de movimiento está formado, a su vez, por otros componentes semánticos
básicos: el Movimiento (Motion), es decir, la acción de moverse en sí misma, y el
Sendero o trayectoria del desplazamiento (Path), que es el componente semántico
más importante. Además, otros componentes semánticos como la Manera de
movimiento (Manner en inglés) y la Causa del movimiento (Cause en inglés),
pueden aparecer vinculados a un evento de movimiento.
Partiendo de qué forma lingüística expresa habitualmente el componente
semántico de Sendero en una lengua, Talmy ha propuesto la tipología binaria de
RESUMEN
lenguas de marco verbal (verb-framed languages) y lenguas de marco satélite
(satellite-framed languages). Las lenguas de marco verbal, como el castellano y otras
lenguas romances, son aquellas que suelen lexicalizar el componente central del
evento en el verbo: entrar, salir, subir, bajar, cruzar, etc. Generalmente, cuando
estas lenguas quieren expresar información sobre cómo se mueve o se desplaza una
entidad, ésta se codifica fuera del verbo mediante adverbios (muy rápidamente),
gerundios (corriendo, saltando) o sintagmas preposicionales (de puntillas), que
tienen un carácter opcional. Por otro lado, las lenguas de marco satélite (como el
inglés y otras lenguas germánicas) son aquellas que expresan el Sendero fuera del
verbo, en satélites 1 (como across, up, down en inglés) y sintagmas preposicionales
(por ejemplo, into/out of the house en inglés). Debido al hecho de que al lexicalizar
el Sendero fuera del verbo, éste queda libre para codificar otro tipo de información,
normalmente, la Manera en la que se desarrolla el movimiento (por ejemplo, he
tiptoed into the room; they waltzed out of the hall).
Las tipologías muestran tendencias en las lenguas del mundo, pero no
diferencias absolutas entre ellas (Berman y Slobin, 1994: 118). Por ello, es necesario
hacer hincapié en el hecho de que las lenguas poseen verbos que expresan otros
componentes semánticos aparte de los de Sendero y Manera; la tipología de Talmy
sobre la expresión del dominio del movimiento, en ningún momento, ha de
interpretarse como que las lenguas de marco verbal única y exclusivamente tienen
verbos de sendero, y las lenguas de marco satélite solamente poseen verbos que
expresen Manera.
La teoría de Talmy ha inspirado numerosas investigaciones durante estas
últimas dos décadas. En un primer estadio, las investigaciones se centraron en
analizar y contrastar cómo distintas lenguas expresan el dominio del movimiento.
Para ello, se empleó un libro para niños, Frog, Where are you? de Mercer Mayer
(1969), como instrumento para elicitar, del modo más natural posible, descripciones
orales sobre el movimiento de los personajes de este libro. Esto llevó a la publicación
1
Según Talmy (2000b: 102), los satélites forman una categoría gramatical; su característica sintáctica
es su estrecha vinculación al verbo, y su función semántica es, principalmente, la de expresar el
Sendero, componente central del evento de movimiento.
451
RESUMEN
de dos volúmenes, bajo el título Relating Events in Narratives: el primer volumen,
editado por Berman y Slobin (1994), documenta 5 lenguas (inglés, alemán, hebreo,
castellano y turco), y el segundo, editado por
Strömqvist y Verhoeven (2004)
documenta un total de 14 (lenguaje de signos, aranda, groenlandés, inglés, castellano,
hebreo, japonés, sueco, islandés, tailandés, turco, tzeltal o maya, euskara y warlpiri).
Este segundo volumen cuestiona la tipología binaria de Talmy al documentar un
grupo de lenguas que no encajan perfectamente en esta tipología; algunas lenguas
expresan tanto Sendero como Manera con formas lingüísticas de igual estatus, es
decir, ninguna de ellas es dependiente de la otra. Como resultado, Slobin (2004) lleva
a cabo una completa reformulación de la tipología binaria inicial de Talmy
añadiendo un tercer grupo: lenguas de marco equiparable o equivalente 2
(equipollently-framed languages). Al mismo tiempo, se observa que las lenguas
dentro del mismo grupo tipológico también difieren entre sí en la expresión del
Sendero (más concretamente, en la elaboración de las trayectorias) y la Manera de
movimiento, llevando a la propuesta de gradientes o continuos de Sendero
(Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 2004a) y de Manera (Slobin, 2004). En esos continuos, las
lenguas del mismo grupo tipológico estarían más próximas entre sí, mientras que las
lenguas de distinto marco tipológico se encontrarían más distanciadas.
A su vez, este tipo de estudios han servido como punto de partida para otras
investigaciones centradas en (a) cómo los niños adquieren los patrones semánticos
específicos de su lengua (p.ej., Hickman, 2006; Oh, 2003; Semilis y Katis, 2003), (b)
los efectos que éstos tienen en cómo se procesa el lenguaje (p.ej., Billman y Krych,
1998; Cifuentes-Férez y Gentner, 2006; Naigles y Terrazas, 1998), y (c) la posible
influencia en la cognición no lingüística (p.ej., Gennari et al., 2002; Oh, 2003;
Papafragou et al., 2002; Pourcel, 2005).
Las investigaciones pertinentes para el presente trabajo, no obstante, son
primordialmente las de naturaleza lingüístico-descriptiva, esto es, aquellas centradas
en la descripción de la expresión lingüística de este dominio en una o más lenguas.
2
Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2004c) traduce el término inglés por lenguas de marco equipolente, que está
más próximo al término inglés en cuanto a forma. Sin embargo, se ha optado por traducirlo como
lenguas de marco equiparable o equivalente, ya que denota más claramente el estatus similar que los
componentes de Sendero y Manera tienen en este grupo de lenguas.
452
RESUMEN
El punto de divergencia entre las lenguas de marco verbal y satélite que mayor
atención ha recibido en los estudios de esta índole es el referente a la expresión de
Manera de movimiento. Las diferencias interlingüísticas en la lexicalización de la
Manera de movimiento no residen únicamente en dónde se suele expresar la Manera
de movimiento (en el verbo o fuera de él), sino también en el tipo de información que
se puede o no expresar. Como Slobin (1997: 459) señala, las lenguas parecen tener
un lexicón de verbos de manera con 2 niveles: (1) un nivel general o superordinado,
que está formado por verbos como walk ‘andar’, run ‘correr’, jump ‘saltar’, fly
‘volar’ etc; y (2) un nivel más especifico, que incluye verbos que denotan diferentes
modos de andar (p. ej., stroll ‘andar por placer y de un modo relajado’, wander
‘andar sin ningún objetivo o dirección’ o shuffle ‘andar arrastrando los pies’ en
inglés, o pasear, deambular), de correr (p.ej., jog ‘hacer jogging’, sprint ‘esprintar’),
etc. Un gran número de las investigaciones en el área han mostrado que el inglés
tiene un segundo nivel mucho más elaborado que el castellano, cuyo lexicón verbal
está formado por verbos de manera de movimiento más generales (cf. Berman y
Slobin, 1994; Slobin, 1996a, 1996b). Por otra parte, con el propósito de facilitar la
comparación interlingüítica en cuanto a qué tipo de información sobre la Manera de
movimiento puede expresarse en verbos u otras unidades léxicas, Ibarretxe-Antuñano
(2006a, 2006b), Özçalişkan (2004) y Slobin (2005), entre otros autores, han dividido
el componente semántico de Manera en un número de categorías o parámetros más
específicos:
•
Patrón motor (las habilidades motrices básicas): andar, correr, saltar, volar
•
Velocidad (lenta, rápida): apresurarse, acelerar, desacelerar
•
Medio de transporte (en animal, en coche, en tren, etc): cabalgar, jinetear,
pilotar
•
Movimiento con un gran esfuerzo: abalanzarse, lanzarse
•
Movimiento inestable: tambalearse
•
Movimiento obstruido: tropezar, trompicar
•
Movimiento suave, sin obstáculos: deslizarse
•
Movimiento por placer: pasear
453
RESUMEN
•
Movimiento sin objetivo: deambular, vagar
•
Estado físico o mental de la Figura: cojear (la Figura o persona está herida),
contonearse (la persona se mueve presumidamente)
Gracias al empleo de estas categorías, es posible encontrar diferencias mucho más
sutiles entre lenguas.
El componente semántico del Sendero, por el contrario, no ha recibido tanta
atención en los estudios interlingüísticos. El Sendero es el componente central del
evento del movimiento y, por ello, siempre está presente en las descripciones de
eventos de movimiento; ambos grupos de lenguas lo expresan lingüísticamente, bien
sea en el verbo o en los satélites. De ahí que el estudio de la expresión de este
componente semántico haya sido relegado a un segundo plano. No obstante,
encontramos unos pocos estudios (p.ej., Berthele, 2004; Narasimham, 2003; Wälchli,
2001) que se han centrado en los distintos tipos de Sendero que aparecen en un
número de lenguas, con el objetivo de dilucidar diferencias y semejanzas entre
lenguas. Como ejemplo, estos son los tipos de Sendero propuestos por Berthele
(2004), que se basan en Wälchli (2001):
•
AD = la Figura se mueve hacia la Base: aproximarse
•
IN = la Figura entra en la Base: entrar, penetrar
•
SUPER = la Figura se mueve hacia arriba: subir, ascender
•
AB = la Figura se aleja de la Base: alejarse
•
EX = la Figura sale de la Base: salir
•
DE = la Figura se mueve hacia abajo: bajar, descender
En relación con el léxico verbal de Sendero, Özçalişkan (2004: 85) argumenta
que los lexicones verbales de Sendero de las lenguas de marco verbal y de marco
satélite forman una categoría léxica cerrada con pocas opciones de elaboración; las
distintas trayectorias que una Figura puede seguir son mucho más limitadas que los
distintos modos en los que la Figura puede desplazarse. Por ello, esta autora deduce
454
RESUMEN
que lenguas de distintos grupos tipológicos van a tener un número aproximado de
verbos de sendero. Su proposición, no obstante, no se ha explorado aún.
En general, a pesar de las prolíficas investigaciones en la expresión
lingüística del dominio del movimiento, se ha dedicado escasa atención al hecho de
que los verbos de movimiento pueden expresar otro tipo de información semántica
aparte de la de Sendero y Manera. Asimismo, los autores han relegado el estudio de
los verbos de sendero a un segundo plano, y se han centrado en los verbos de
manera, por ser estos últimos uno de los puntos divergentes más interesantes entre
distintos grupos tipológicos. Por último, muy pocas investigaciones se han dedicado
a explorar la semántica de los verbos de movimiento de las lenguas de marco verbal
y de marco satélite más allá de los verbos elicitados oralmente o sacados de
narrativas (p.ej., Jovanovic & Martinovic-Zic, 2005; Özçalişkan, 2004; Slobin,
1996a, 1966b, 2005). En el caso del inglés y el castellano, concretamente, no parece
haber ningún estudio que compare sus lexicones verbales desde un punto de vista
interlingüístico.
La presente tesis doctoral pretende contribuir a la investigación en el área
mediante un análisis sistemático y exhaustivo de la semántica de los lexicones
verbales referidos al movimiento en inglés y en castellano. Un mayor entendimiento
de la semántica de sus respectivos léxicos verbales, así como de las diferencias y
similitudes entre ambos, es fundamental para las investigaciones interlingüísticas que
versan sobre la expresión lingüística del dominio del movimiento, así como para las
investigaciones que pretenden vislumbrar si las diferencias lingüísticas entre lenguas
de marco verbal y de marco satélite tienen alguna influencia en la cognición nolingüística, es decir, en la forma que los hablantes de esas lenguas conceptualizan el
dominio del movimiento.
Objetivos, Corpus y Metodología
La presente investigación se centra en la semántica de los verbos de movimiento en
inglés y en castellano. El primer objetivo es comparar y contrastar el lexicón verbal
455
RESUMEN
de movimiento en ambas lenguas. Las preguntas de investigación que gobiernan este
primer objetivo son las siguientes:
•
¿Qué nociones semánticas se expresan en los verbos de movimiento en inglés
y en español?
Aparte de los verbos que expresan Manera y de los que expresan Sendero, se espera
encontrar, en ambas lenguas, otros verbos que codifican otros tipos de componentes
semánticos, tales como Movimiento + Base (entidad con respecto a la que se mueve
la Figura), como en atajar (ir por un atajo) y costear (ir por la costa), Movimiento +
Sendero + Manera, como en acechar (ir detrás de alguien de un modo furtivo),
Movimiento + Sendero + Base como en embarcar (subir a bordo de un medio de
locomoción), etc.
•
¿Son los lexicones verbales de sendero en inglés y en castellano similares?
o
¿Poseen un número aproximado de verbos de sendero?
o
¿Expresan los mismos tipos de Sendero?
o
¿Qué tipos de Sendero se lexicalizan en inglés con mayor frecuencia?
o
¿Qué tipos de Sendero se lexicalizan en castellano con mayor
frecuencia?
Con el presente trabajo pretendemos comprobar si las argumentaciones de
Özçalişkan (2004) se aplican al léxico verbal de sendero en inglés y en castellano; es
decir, si (a) el léxico verbal de sendero es bastante limitado en cuanto a qué
trayectorias se pueden describir, y si (b) las lenguas de marco verbal y satélite poseen
un número similar de verbos de sendero. Además, se intentarán descubrir semejanzas
y diferencias entre ambas lenguas. Por un lado, cabe esperar que los verbos de
sendero ingleses de origen latino (p.ej., enter, ascend, descend, arrive) sean
semejantes a los castellanos con la misma etimología (p.ej., entrar, ascender,
descender, arribar). Sin embargo, podría ser el caso de que el castellano tenga otros
verbos de sendero que no se encuentren en inglés, tales como aquellos verbos que
derivan de una preposición que expresa dirección y un adverbio (p.ej., adentrarse = a
456
RESUMEN
+ dentro; acercar = a + cerca), o verbos provenientes de un adverbio tales como
alejarse (del adverbio lejos).
•
¿Expresan los verbos de manera en inglés y en castellano el mismo tipo de
detalles sobre Manera de movimiento?
o
¿Qué tipo de detalles se expresan con mayor frecuencia en los verbos
de manera en inglés?
o
¿Qué tipo de detalles se expresan con mayor frecuencia en los verbos
de manera en castellano?
o
¿Presenta el inglés un mayor número de verbos de manera en todos
los subdominios de movimiento? Si este no es el caso, ¿en qué
subdominio(s) el castellano tiene una mayor granularidad semántica?
Con el análisis semántico de verbos de manera de movimiento en ambas lenguas
exploraremos si ambas lenguas expresan el mismo tipo de información sobre Manera
de movimiento. A la misma vez, atenderemos a aquéllos detalles de Manera que se
explotan con mayor frecuencia en cada lengua, y en último lugar, veremos si el
léxicon verbal de Manera es mucho más rico que el castellano para todos los
subdominios del movimiento (p.ej., movimiento humano, movimiento usando
vehículo, etc.), o si el castellano presenta una mayor variedad de verbos para
algún/algunos subdominio(s).
El corpus de verbos abarca 376 verbos de movimiento en ingles y 257 en
castellano. A la hora de compilar este corpus de verbos, se consultaron listados
disponibles en la literatura existente sobre verbos de movimiento, diccionarios
monolingües y bilingües, así como tesauros. En el caso del inglés, se consultaron las
siguientes fuentes:
•
Levin & Rappaport-Hovav (1992), Levin (1993), y Snell-Hornby (1983)
•
Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
•
Cambridge
Advanced
Learner’s
Dictionary,
CD-Rom
version
1.1.
Cambridge University Press. 2003 (CALD)
457
RESUMEN
•
Cambridge Klett Compact, CD-Rom version 1.0b. Cambridge University
Press. 2002 (CKC)
•
Merriam-Webster Online, disponible en http://www.merriam-webster.com/
(MW)
•
The Free Dictionary, (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dictionary.htm)
(TFD)
•
Longman Language Activator. Pearson Education. 2002 (LLA)
•
Roget’s thesaurus of English words and phrases (RTE), disponible en
http://poets.notredame.ac.jp/Roget/
Para castellano, se emplearon:
•
Cifuentes Honrubia (1999) y Morimoto (2001)
•
Diccionario de uso del Español. María Moliner, CD-Rom version 2.0,
Gredos. 2001. (DUE)
•
Diccionario de la lengua española. Real Academia Española, 21 edición.
Espasa Calpe. 1992. (DRAE)
Los verbos de movimiento objeto de la presente investigación son principalmente
verbos intransitivos, aunque también se han incluido verbos transitivos que aparecen
en las construcciones ‘Figura + Verbo + Base (objeto directo)’, como en (1), y
‘Figura + Verbo + otras Figuras’, como en (2). Por otro lado, los verbos transitivos
que denotan que un agente mueve o desplaza a una entidad, es decir, causa el
movimiento de ésta, como en (3), no forman parte de nuestros objetivos. No
obstante, nuestro corpus de verbos si comprende las versiones intransitivas de verbos
transitivos, tales como los verbos de cambio de postura (p.ej., acostar – acostarse,
levantar – levantarse).
(1)
Abandonamos la casa
(2)
Acompañó / guió / escoltó a María
(3)
Pedro empujó a Juan
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RESUMEN
El movimiento físico es el único objeto de estudio; sentidos metafóricos (p.ej.,
Özçalişkan, 2002, 2004) y sentidos referidos al movimiento ficticio (p.ej.,
Langacker, 1987; Matsumoto, 1996; Rojo & Valenzuela, 2003, Talmy, 2000a: 90)
no se han tomado en cuenta en nuestro análisis. En general, el corpus de verbos
comprende verbos de movimiento generales (p.ej., moverse), verbos que expresan
movimiento de varias Figuras (cf. Levin (1993), tales como acompañar, escoltar,
guiar), verbos de sendero (entrar, salir) y verbos de manera de movimiento. Estos
verbos de manera de movimiento se refieren principalmente a:
•
Verbos de movimiento humano y animal (p.ej., andar, correr, saltar, volar )
•
Verbos de movimiento usando un vehículo (p.ej., conducir, navegar,
pedalear, pilotar)
•
Verbos de movimiento referidos a bailar y a distintos bailes (e.g., bailotear,
waltz ‘bailar un waltz’, foxtrot ‘bailar foxtrot’)
•
Verbos de movimiento referidos a objetos o entidades inanimadas (p.ej.,
rodar, oscilar)
•
Verbos que indican cambio de postura (p.ej., acostarse, levantarse).
En cuanto a la metodología a seguir, nuestro análisis parte de los
componentes semánticos generales propuestos por Talmy, pero a su vez, también
emplea los distintos tipos de Sendero y los detalles o parámetros más específicos
sobre Manera de movimiento que la literatura existente ha desarrollado. Nuestro
análisis semántico se basa exclusivamente en las definiciones dadas por los
diccionarios para cada uno de los verbos que forman parte de nuestro corpus (Véase
Apéndice 1 y 2), aunque mi introspección como hablante de castellano y las
introspecciones de algunos informantes ingleses también se tomaron en cuenta.
Cuando la mayoría 3 de los diccionarios no están de acuerdo en cuanto a la
información semántica que el verbo expresa, esa información no se incluye en la
codificación semántica. Además, también se ha tenido en cuenta la etimología de los
3
Para el inglés, se considera que la mayoría de diccionarios están de acuerdo cuando al menos 3 de las
5 fuentes lo están (CALD, TFD, MW, LLA, OED); en castellano, se han consultado solamente 2
diccionarios, por lo que por mayoría entendemos los dos (DUE, DRAE).
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RESUMEN
verbos con el fin de entender mejor su semántica y, en muchas ocasiones, su
estructura composicional. Por ejemplo, despeñarse viene del prefijo direccional
latino des + peña (sustantivo), de ahí que este verbo se haya analizado como
Movimiento + Sendero + Base. Las fuentes que se han consultado para explorar la
etimología de los verbos de movimiento del corpus son:
•
Para el ingles: Oxford English Dictionary y Merriam-Webster Online.
•
Para el castellano: J. L. Cifuentes (1999), que se basa en Corominas y Pascual
(1984), y los diccionarios: Diccionario de uso del Español y Diccionario de
la lengua española.
En general, el léxico verbal en inglés y en castellano se contrastará con
respecto a (a) la distribución semántica general, (b) los verbos de sendero, y (c) los
verbos de manera. La metodología a seguir va a permitirn conocer cómo ambos
lexicones referidos al movimiento se organizan, qué diferencias y similitudes
existen,
así
como
formular
hipótesis
para
investigaciones
de
carácter
psicolingüístico o experimental.
La presente tesis doctoral no puede abarcar todas las hipótesis y nuevas
preguntas de investigación que emanan del análisis semántico. Sin embargo, como
segundo objetivo, se pretende explorar el subdominio del movimiento humano
empleando paradigmas experimentales. Este subdominio puede estructurarse en, al
menos, tres patrones motor básicos: andar, correr y saltar. Andar es la manera de
moverse más típica del ser humano, mientras que correr y saltar son actividades
menos centrales en nuestra experiencia diaria.
En la segunda parte de la presente tesis doctoral, se presentarán tres estudios
experimentales. El primer estudio (tarea de definición y listado de rasgos semánticos
o definition and feature listing task) tiene como objetivo el explorar los rasgos
semánticos definitorios de las acciones moverse, andar, correr y saltar. Con ese
propósito, preguntamos a hablantes nativos de inglés y a hablantes nativos de
castellano, “What is to move / walk / run / jump? That is, which are the features that
define the action of moving / walking /running / jumping?” y “¿Qué es moverse/
andar /correr/ saltar? Es decir, ¿cuáles son las características que definen la acción
460
RESUMEN
de moverse/ andar /correr/ saltar?” respectivamente. A cada sujeto se le preguntó por
un verbo solamente. Además, se les dijo que escribieran sus preguntas, y no se les
dio ninguna limitación de tiempo.
En el segundo estudio (tarea de listado libre de verbos o free verb listing task)
se busca validar empíricamente uno de los resultados más interesantes del análisis
semántico del corpus de verbos; aunque el inglés posee muchos más verbos
referidos al movimiento humano que el castellano, ambas lenguas parecen tener
muchos más verbos de manera referidos a modos de andar que de correr o saltar.
Investigaciones sobre categorización durante 1970 (p. ej., Battig & Montague, 1969;
Freedman & Loftus, 1971; Rosch, 1973, 1975) demuestran que, cuando se le pide a
hablantes que listen ejemplos de una categoría, (a) aquellos ítems que listan primero
son los más prototípicos o mejores ejemplos, (b) que el número de ítems que la
gente lista para una categoría y el tamaño de ésta están correlacionados, es decir,
cuanto más ítems se listan, más grande es una categoría. Partiendo de esta literatura,
pedimos a hablantes nativos de inglés y a hablantes nativos de español que listaran
verbos para responder a la preguntas: “In what ways can a human move / walk / run
/ jump?” y “¿De qué modos puede una persona moverse / andar / correr / saltar?”.
Al igual que en el primer estudio, los sujetos tan solo respondieron a la pregunta
sobre un único verbo. Sin embargo, en esta tarea, se les dio un minuto para
responder a la pregunta por escrito.
En el tercer estudio (tarea de valoración/categorización o rating task), se
busca desvelar el patrón motor específico que denotan o implican un listado de
verbos de movimiento humano en inglés y en castellano. Para ello, pedimos a
hablantes nativos de inglés y a hablantes nativos de castellano que valoraran
marcando una X en una escala si un verbo era un buen ejemplo de andar, de correr
y de saltar.
Resultados
Con el propósito de exponer los resultados de esta investigación del modo más claro
posible, comenzaremos con los principales resultados del análisis semántico del
461
RESUMEN
corpus de verbos de movimiento, divididos en tres bloques: distribución general,
verbos de sendero y verbos de manera de movimiento. Seguidamente, se presentarán
los resultados de los tres estudios experimentales.
CORPUS
Distribución general
Además de verbos que amalgaman o incorporan Sendero (p.ej., entrar, salir, enter,
exit, approach) y Manera de movimiento (p.ej., bucear, correr, deambular, pasear,
volar, revolotear, correr, deambular, stroll, amble, jog), encontramos un gran
número de combinaciones de distinta información semántica que se lexicaliza en
verbos en ambos idiomas. Por ejemplo:
•
Movimiento + Base (Ground): p.ej., volar, fly (la Base es aire); nadar, swim
(la Base es agua) etc. El castellano posee unos verbos donde la Base se deja
entrever en el verbo, por ejemplo, atajar ‘ir a un sitio tomando un atajo’,
costear ‘navegar o moverse a lo largo de la costa’, bordear, llanear. Este
último tipo de verbos no parece ser tan común en el léxico verbal inglés.
•
Movimiento + Sendero + Base (Ground): p.ej., embarcar ‘subir a bordo’,
embark, emigrar, emigrate, aterrizar y land o alight en inglés.
•
Movimiento + Sendero + Base + Manera: p.ej., ford ‘cruzar un río (a pie
normalmente)’, skydive ‘lanzarse en picado por el aire’, capuzarse.
•
Movimiento + Manera + Base: p.ej., bucear, dive (nadar debajo del agua),
callejear (andar por las calles), wade (andar con dificultad por una corriente
de agua).
•
Movimiento + Figura + Co-movimiento: p.ej., acompañar, accompany,
escoltar, escort, guiar, guide, lead. Estos verbos expresan que una entidad se
desplaza en relación a otra que también se desplaza a la misma vez; en otras
palabras, hay varias Figuras en co-movimiento.
En general, se observa que el patrón de lexicalización más frecuente en los lexicones
verbales de ambas lenguas es el de Movimiento + un componente semántico (87.50%
del corpus inglés y el 79.38% del corpus en castellano). Entre esas combinaciones o
462
RESUMEN
amalgamas, las de Sendero representan un 11.70% de los verbos en inglés y un
24.51% de los verbos en castellano, mientras que las de Manera están presentes en
un 73.80% de nuestro corpus en inglés y un 47.86% de nuestro corpus en castellano.
Además, nuestros datos muestran que, en ambas lenguas, se han encontrado verbos
que incorporan la Base o entidad referencial por sí sola, como por ejemplo, circuit y
circulate en inglés, atajar, bordear, circular, costear, fondear y llanear en
castellano, o junto a otra información semántica (p.ej., junto con Sendero: aterrizar,
desembarcar, expatriar, inmigrar, disembark, embark, land; junto con Manera:
callejear, ladear (caminar por la ladera de una montaña), planear, chapotear, swim,
wade). En total, un 4.55% del léxico verbal inglés y un 12.06% del castellano
amalgaman información sobre la Base. Por ello, los resultados de este estudio
contradicen las observaciones de Talmy (2000b: 61) sobre la escasa frecuencia o
inexistencia de estas amalgamas en los lexicones verbales.
Por otro lado, nuestros datos muestran que las combinaciones de más de 2
componentes semánticos (véase ejemplos más arriba) son muy poco frecuentes en los
lexicones verbales, por lo que podemos concluir que no son patrones semánticos
representativos de estas lenguas.
Verbos de sendero
Con respecto a verbos que lexicalizan Sendero, de un total de 257 verbos en
castellano y 376 en inglés, en nuestro corpus de verbos se han encontrado 63 para el
castellano y 44 para el inglés. Nuestros datos muestran que el castellano tiene un
gran número de verbos de etimología latina que consisten en la amalgama de la
preposición ‘a’ + ‘adverbio’, por ejemplo, acercar(se), adentrar(se), alejar(se),
aproximar(se), y a otros verbos que provienen de nombres, distanciarse (de
distancia), encumbrar (de cumbre). Este tipo de verbos no se encuentran en inglés,
aunque sí que encontramos un gran número de verbos de origen latino muy similares
a los españoles, y que por tanto, expresan los mismos tipos de Sendero:
•
‘Pasar/Cruzar la Base’: cross-cruzar, traverse-atravesar, pass-pasar
•
‘Lejos de la Base’: retreat-retirarse, desert-desertar, abandon-abandonar
•
‘Hacia dentro de la Base’: enter-entrar, penetrate-penetrar
463
RESUMEN
•
‘Hacia arriba / encima de la Base’: scale-scalar, ascend-ascender
•
‘Hacia abajo’: descend-descender
•
‘Hacia delante’: advance-avanzar
•
‘Hacia la Base’: arrive-arribar
Nuestro análisis, además, muestra que ambas lenguas expresan hasta 13 tipos
de Sendero diferentes. Los tipos de Sendero que se expresan con mayor frecuencia
en ambos lexicones son: ‘Lejos de la Base’, ‘Hasta encima o arriba de la Base–
Hacia arriba’, ‘Hacia la Base’, ‘Hacia abajo desde la Base – Hacia abajo hasta la
Base – Hacia abajo’. Por otra parte, ‘Fuera de la Base’ es el tipo de Sendero menos
frecuente en ambos lexicones, con un verbo por lengua (salir, exit). Aparentemente,
no hay razón por la que este tipo de Sendero se vea tan desfavorecido.
Recapitulando, ambos lexicones pueden expresar los mismos tipos de
Sendero, apoyando la idea de que el léxico verbal de sendero es mucho más limitado
que el de manera, tal y como Özçalişkan argumentaba. No obstante, nuestros datos
no apoyan su propuesta sobre que las lenguas de marco verbal y satélite tienen el
mismo número de verbos de sendero; nuestros resultados muestran que el castellano
posee un mayor número de verbos de sendero. El mayor número de verbos de
sendero en castellano se puede atribuir a la presencia de un gran número verbos de
distintos orígenes etimológicos, entre los cuáles están aquellos que hemos
presentado anteriormente.
Verbos de manera
Los verbos de manera de movimiento identificados en nuestro corpus (276 para
inglés y 123 para castellano) pueden agruparse en 2 categorías generales: movimiento
interno a la Figura y movimiento translativo (cf. Talmy (2000b), self-contained
motion y translational motion). Por movimiento interno a la Figura, entendemos
aquellos modos en los que la Figura se mueve sin desplazarse a ningún otro lugar,
como por ejemplo, un péndulo que oscila, un niño que se balancea en un columpio,
etc. Por otro lado, movimiento translativo se refiere a aquellas acciones que
transcurren mientras la Figura se desplaza o cambia de lugar; por ejemplo, si alguien
camina o corre, o un pájaro vuela, se espera que haya un cambio de lugar con
464
RESUMEN
respecto al comienzo de la acción. En general, nuestro análisis revela que ambas
lenguas pueden expresar una gran variedad de información sobre la Manera de
movimiento, y que, en ambos lexicones, hay un mayor número de verbos de manera
que implican un cambio de lugar, es decir, movimiento translativo (un 77.17% del
corpus de verbos de manera en inglés y un 59.35% de los verbos de manera en
castellano).
Dentro de las maneras de movimiento interno a la Figura, ‘cambio de postura’
y ‘sacudir, oscilar y vibrar’ (‘Shake, Swing and vibrate’ en inglés) son las maneras
de movimiento que más frecuentemente se expresan en ambas lenguas. Sin embargo,
en castellano, se observa que hay un mayor número de verbos de manera referidos al
cambio de postura que en inglés (concretamente, 28 en castellano frente a 17 en
inglés). Por otro lado, encontramos otras diferencias interlingüísticas: en castellano
no encontramos verbos de manera que expresen movimiento interno ‘al revés’
(‘Upside Down’ en inglés), como en los verbos ingleses capsize, overturn, flip.
Dentro del grupo de verbos de manera que implican un cambio de lugar,
encontramos que, en inglés, las categorías de manera que más frecuentemente se
expresan en verbos son: ‘patrón motor’ (23.55% 4 ), ‘vehículo’ (18.84%), ‘velocidad’
(12.68%), y ‘bailes’ (6.88%), mientras que en castellano, ‘patrón motor’ (25.20%) y
‘vehículo’ (11.38%) son las más frecuentes. Como resultado, una porción
significativa del lexicón de manera de ambas lenguas se centra en expresar (a)
patrones motores básicos (maneras de andar, de correr, de saltar) y el (b) uso de
vehículos como medio de locomoción. Con respecto a ‘patrón motor’, nuestros datos
revelan que el léxico verbal inglés es mucho mas variado, y expresa detalles sobre la
manera en que la Figura se desplaza mucho más específicos que los respectivos
verbos en castellano. En general, encontramos numerosos verbos en inglés que
lexicalizan:
•
El estado físico y mental de la Figura mientras camina: relajado y por placer
(amble, hike, mosey, trek, stroll), enfado (march, storm, stamp), orgullo
(swagger, strut, parade), cansado y con pies pesados (trudge, plod, traipse),
herido (limp, hobble).
4
Nótese que los porcentajes son relativos al total de verbos de manera en cada lengua.
465
RESUMEN
•
Información sobre los pasos o saltos: mince, scurry, scuttle (pasos cortos),
stride, lope (a grandes pasos o zancadas).
El inglés posee un mayor número de verbos referidos a ‘patrón motor’ y, por tanto,
presenta una mayor granularidad semántica en este subdominio. Sin embargo, ambas
lenguas muestran la misma organización del léxico verbal; tanto el inglés como el
castellano tienen una mayor número de verbos que denotan distintos modos de andar
(47 en inglés, 24 en castellano) que de correr (7 en inglés y 4 en castellano) o de
saltar (11 en inglés y 3 en castellano).
También hemos observado que en inglés, el nombre de vehículos (bike, cab,
ferry, raft, ship, truck, etc) y el nombre de distintos bailes (foxtrot, twist, waltz, etc)
pueden emplearse como verbos de movimiento. Esta versatilidad no se encuentra en
castellano; en nuestro corpus de verbos encontramos 3 verbos referidos a ‘bailes’
(bailar, bailotear (bailar de una manera descuidada) y danzar) frente a 19 en inglés,
y 14 verbos referidos a ‘vehículo’ frente a 52 en inglés. A pesar de las diferencias
cuantitativas, en ambas lenguas, encontramos tres tipos de verbos relacionados con
vehículos: (1) verbos que implican desplazamiento mediante un vehículo: conducir,
pilotar, navegar, drive, cruise, ride etc.; (2) verbos que denotan un vehículo o un
instrumento específico: bike, ferry, ship, ski, esquiar, patinar, etc, y (3) verbos
metonímicos que lexicalizan una parte de un vehículo para referirse al vehículo al
completo: remar (remo por barco), pedalear (pedal por bicicleta), oar, paddle y row
(remo por barco), pedal (pedal por bicicleta), sail (vela por barco), wheel (rueda por
coche o vehículo con ruedas).
El léxico verbal en castellano es más parco en detalles sobre maneras de
movimiento, pero encontramos tres verbos muy arraigados en la cultura española:
taconear, zapatear y chancletear, que expresan información que parece no poder
lexicalizarse en un verbo en inglés. Concretamente, estos verbos denotan un
determinado sonido/ruido que se produce al bailar y/o al andar llevando un
determinado tipo de calzado.
ESTUDIOS EXPERIMENTALES
Estudio 1. Definición y listado de rasgos semánticos
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RESUMEN
Este estudio ha permitido identificar la información semántica que los hablantes
nativos de ambas lenguas consideran relevante para describir las acciones: moverse,
andar, correr y saltar en castellano, y move, walk, run and jump en inglés. En
general, moverse y move se definen como verbos de movimiento que denotan tanto
un movimiento interno de la Figura como un movimiento translativo; andar y walk
se describen como verbos que representan la manera más básica de desplazarse
empleando los propios medios de locomoción (es decir, las piernas); correr y run se
definen como verbos de movimiento translativo caracterizados por una velocidad
elevada y por una forma peculiar de mover las piernas; y, por último, saltar y jump
se describen como verbos que denotan que la Figura se impulsa desde el suelo. Para
este verbo, el cambio de lugar o movimiento translativo no parece ser un rasgo
definitorio.
Estudio 2. Listado libre de verbos
Este estudio proporciona la primera evidencia empírica de que el inglés y el
castellano organizan su lexicón verbal referido a movimiento humano del mismo
modo, respaldando los resultados de nuestro análisis lingüístico. Ambas lenguas
están más interesadas en expresar en sus verbos de movimiento distintos modos de
andar, que de correr o de saltar, como podemos deducir tras observar que tanto los
hablantes nativos de inglés como de castellano listaron más verbos de andar que de
correr o de saltar.
Estudio 3. Valoración / Categorización de verbos
Uno de los problemas que surgió a la hora de codificar nuestro corpus de verbos en
inglés y en castellano fue la dificultad de decidir si un verbo denotaba una manera de
andar, de correr o de saltar, al no quedar siempre claro en las definiciones dadas por
los diccionarios. Con este estudio obtuvimos evidencia empírica sobre qué verbos de
movimiento (a) se consideran como maneras de andar, de correr o de saltar, (b)
cuáles no parecen pertenecer a ningún patrón motor específico, y (c) cuáles parecen
ser casos intermedios.
467
RESUMEN
En primer lugar, encontramos claros ejemplos de andar (p.ej., acechar,
acompañar, ambular, anadear, caminar, contonearse, desfilar, patear, rondar,
renquear; amble, clump, crawl, creep, parade, plod, stagger, stalk, stride, tipote,
trudge), de correr (p.ej., acelerar, aligerar, esprintar, fugarse; inglés: bolt, canter,
charge, chase, dart, dash, flee, sprint, zoom) y de saltar (p.ej., brincar; bounce, hop,
leap, skip, sommersault, spring, vault). En segundo lugar, los verbos de cambio de
postura (p.ej., encorvarse, slouch), los de movimiento obstruido (p.ej., trip), los
verbos que se definen en diccionarios como andar o correr alegremente (p.ej.,
retozar, frolic, frisk, gambol) no parecen denotar ningún patrón motor específico. En
tercer lugar, encontramos verbos que parecen implicar tanto andar como correr (p.ej.,
corretear, desacelerar, esquivar, regatear; dribble, hasten, hurry, rush, skitter, trot),
otros andar y saltar (como taconear en castellano y prance en inglés) y, por último,
el verbo precipitarse parece ser un buen ejemplo de correr y saltar. Adicionalmente,
los resultados de este estudio confirman de nuevo los del estudio anterior; la mayoría
de verbos de movimiento humano incluidos en este estudio se han considerado como
mejores ejemplos de andar, que de correr o de saltar.
Conclusiones finales
El análisis contrastivo de una gran porción del léxico verbal de movimiento en inglés
y en castellano ha permitido observar algunas semejanzas. En primer lugar, el mayor
número de verbos amalgama Movimiento y otro componente semántico, bien
Manera o Sendero, lo que sugiere que son los patrones de lexicalización más
frecuentes en estas lenguas. En segundo lugar, los verbos de sendero expresan, al
menos, 13 tipos de Sendero. Entre ellos, los que más frecuentemente se lexicalizan
en verbos en ambas lenguas son: ‘Lejos de la Base’, ‘Hasta encima o arriba de la
Base – Hacia arriba’, ‘Hacia la Base’, ‘Hacia abajo desde la Base – Hacia abajo hasta
la Base – Hacia abajo’. Por otro lado, ‘Fuera de la Base’ es el tipo de Sendero menos
frecuente en ambos lexicones. En tercer lugar, ambas lenguas poseen un mayor
número de verbos que expresan distintos modos de andar, que de correr o saltar.
Estas tendencias sugieren que hay semejanzas importantes entre el inglés y el
468
RESUMEN
castellano, y probablemente entre otras lenguas de marco verbal y satélite, en cómo
se estructura el lexicón verbal de movimiento. Por tanto, la metodología empleada se
puede extrapolar al estudio de otras lenguas de marco verbal y satélite con el
propósito de testear si estas tres tendencias se aplican a otras lenguas.
Aparte de estas similitudes, también se ha reparado en una serie de
diferencias interlingüísticas. Por un lado, el léxico verbal de manera de movimiento
en inglés es mucho más extenso que el del castellano, como ya había sugerido la
literatura anterior, y tiende a explotar alguna información semántica sobre Manera
con mucha más frecuencia que en los verbos de manera en castellano (p.ej.,
información sobre el estado físico y mental de la Figura, detalles del movimiento de
sus piernas mientras anda, corre o salta). Por el otro, el léxico verbal de sendero en
castellano rebasa en número al inglés, aunque se ha observado que ambas lenguas
pueden expresar los mismos tipos de Sendero.
Para concluir, el análisis semántico del corpus de verbos en inglés y en
castellano tiene, como toda investigación, sus limitaciones. La codificación
semántica de cada verbo se fundamenta en las definiciones dadas por diccionarios
monolingües así como en mi introspección lingüística como hablante nativa de
castellano y en la introspección de informantes nativos ingleses. El análisis llevado a
cabo en este trabajo, por tanto, es uno entre otros análisis posibles, y en ningún
momento se asume que la codificación semántica sea equivalente a la representación
mental que los hablantes tienen de esos verbos. Sin embargo, el análisis semántico
ha permitido formular hipótesis sobre la naturaleza del léxico verbal en inglés y en
castellano, y proporciona una base lingüístico-tipológica sólida para continuar con la
investigación a nivel experimental. Aunque una tesis doctoral no sea suficiente para
abarcar y responder a todas las preguntas de investigación derivadas del análisis, la
presente investigación ha logrado cubrir satisfactoriamente el subdominio del
movimiento humano gracias a los tres estudios experimentales llevados a cabo. Por
primera vez en esta área de investigación, estos estudios desvelan (a) lo que los
hablantes piensan sobre el significado de unos verbos de movimiento básicos, (b) que
ambas lenguas siguen la misma tendencia en la organización de la porción del léxico
verbal referida al movimiento humano, y sugieren (c) que algunos verbos de
movimiento implican más de un patrón motor.
469

MOTION IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH: A PERSPECTIVE FROM

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